William Woodward (US/Louisiana, 1859-1939)

William Woodward
(American/Louisiana, 1859-1939)

"Arts and Crafts Club (Courtyard)", now the Historic New Orleans Collection, 520 Royal Street, 1922

oil on academy board
signed lower right, titled and dated en verso.
Framed.
16-3/4" x 16", framed 23-1/4" x 22-3/8"

Provenance: Formerly in a private collection, Lafayette, Louisiana.

Exhibited: Probably, William Woodward Exhibit, Art Gallery, Newcomb College, December 7-25, 1922; exhibit ran concurrently with the December 7-8 Newcomb Art Alumnae Exhibit and Sale.

Notes: The courtyard of the Historic New Orleans Collection, then the Arts and Crafts Club of New Orleans, is one of the most iconic courtyards in the French Quarter, captured by one of the most important artists, educators, and supporters of Southern Art- William Woodward. Woodward and his brother Ellsworth were formative; they founded and organized numerous schools, buildings and associations, including Newcomb College, the Tulane University campus, the Tulane School of Architecture, the Art Association of New Orleans and Vieux Carré Commission. The Woodwards equally championed the Arts and Crafts Club, an embodiment of their legacy that jointly fostered art education and historic preservation. Officially established in June 1922 after the wealthy financier W.R. Irby gifted the Seignouret-Brulatour building at 520 Royal Street to the Club for use as a gallery, club and school, the Club became a beacon for modern art in the South. It offered classes to the public, held meetings/lectures, exhibitions, and balls- the flourishing art center engendered the architectural revival of the French Quarter, which otherwise would have been lost to urban decay in the early 20th century. The Club's illustrious faculty, who included Kinsey, Spratling, Millet, Heldner, Alferez, Stevens and Durieux, fostered another prolific generation of Southern artists, namely Crawford, McCrady and Boyd Cruise- the first director of the Historic New Orleans Collection, whose work was commissioned by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in the 1930s to document the architectural heritage of the French Quarter. In a 1924 letter to the editor of the American Magazine of Art, Woodward lauded the Club for having accomplished a "Renaissance of French Town" through its charter and described the prominent court, he so adeptly captures here, as being centrally located in one of the "best old courtyard buildings where they have a lofty and spacious gallery on level with the court and a stage at one end". This view of the famous court not only commemorates the Club's inception, but it is also one of the last architectural paintings Woodward executed in the French Quarter. In 1923 he moved to Biloxi following his untimely fall from a scaffold that left him paralyzed. Some of his last paintings of New Orleans, which likely included this work, were exhibited in a Christmas party retirement homage at Newcomb College that ran for three weeks concurrent with its alumnae sale.