Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

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Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Warren Chappell, Accession #10204-af,-ag, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Warren Chappell papers were given to the Library on June 7, 1989, by Remsen Wolff of New York City, New York, and David Lawall, Director of the Bayly Art Museum of University of Virginia.

Biographical/Historical Information

Chappell was born in Richmond, Virginia, and took his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond. His formal art training began at the Art Students League in New York. He was on the Board of the Art Students League from 1927-1931, but left to study for a year under Rudolf Koch at his Offenbacher Werkstatt in Germany. In 1932, Chappell returned to New York, established his own studio and taught at the Art Students League. For about fifteen months in 1935-1936, he studied with Boardman Robinson at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. He kept his studio in New York until 1951 when he moved to Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1978, Chappell moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he became the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Virginia.

Isabel Bishop entered the New York School of Applied Design for Women in 1918, but soon left to attend the Art Students League of New York where she studied painting with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Guy Pene du Bois. In 1932, Bishop joined the Midtown Galleries Group. Bishop established a studio in New York's Union Square in 1934, and became known for her drawings and paintings of the various inhabitants of Union Square, including working class people, hobos, and drunks. She also was appointed as an instructor at the Art Students League in 1936-1937. In 1934, she married Dr. Harold George Wolff, and her son, Remsen, was born in 1940. She was elected to the National Academy of Design on April 24, 1941, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1944.

Scope and Content Information

This collection of Warren Chappell (1904- ) letters and drawings consists of ca. 370 items, 1932, (1942-1989), chiefly letters, frequently illustrated by pen and ink and watercolor sketches, from Warren Chappell to Isabel Bishop (Wolff) (1902-198[8?]) and David Lawall.

Chappell's letters to Isabel Bishop reveal a close life-long friendship between the two artists. Most of Chappell's missives to Bishop include a whimsical drawing illustrating the particular topic, season, holiday, or idea pertaining to the letter. Some of these drawings were taken from preliminary sketches for book illustrations.

Some topics of interest in the correspondence include: a discussion of movement in painting (1972 Sep 17); the planning for a showing of Bishop drawings and paintings at the Charlottesville Bayly Art Museum (1974 Oct 29; 1975 Feb 26 and Mar 17); the termination of Chappell's long-standing working relationship as a consultant with the Book of the Month Club which had been swallowed up by Time, Inc. (1977 Dec 11); the Chatsworth show at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (1979 Oct 2); the Allen Lewis Collection at Wheaton College (1979 Oct 29, Nov 25); Chappell's participation in the Art Students League and other members (1979 Mar 11; 1983 Aug 5, & 21, Oct 1, Nov 4; 1985 Jun 22 and Oct 11); and his appointment as Artist-In-Residence at the University of Virginia (1979 Nov 25).

Other topics include: his talk at a seminar on the use of a pen in drawing (1980 Sep 15 and Oct 1); his idea of the purpose of an Artist-In-Residence at the University of Virginia (1981 May 12); a University of Virginia art history teacher interested in the Art Students League (1981 Sep 27); a discussion of artist friends (1982 Sep 25); diagnosis of Parkinson's disease for Bishop (1982 Sep 25); Chappell's concept of his own work as an artist (1983 Nov 19); Charles and Dorothy Locke (1984 Feb 17, Mar 23, May 29, Nov 18; 1987 Feb 26, Apr 3); home studios and his past working addresses (1984 Mar 7); a doctoral student's interest in Isabel Bishop's work (1984 Oct 4); his opinion of "art history" as a field (1985 Jan 21); his association with Leopold Tyrmand ([1921]-1985) (1985 Mar 23, and Jul 19); his opinion of journalism (1985 May 31); Boardman Robinson ([1876]-?) concerning Vanity Fair (1985 Nov 29); his association with Boardman Robinson (1986 Feb 22, and Jul 4); his grandfather's founding of the Socialist Party in Richmond, Virginia (1986 Jul 4); and his association with Joseph Pennell, an instructor at the Art Students League, and consultant work with Knopf and Book of the Month Club (1987 May 16).

The letters from Warren Chappell to David Lawall of the Bayly Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia, are also usually illustrated with pen and ink drawings and watercolors. The following topics are included: a discussion of his illustrations for Moby Dick (1975 Oct 4); improvements in the University of Virginia Art Department (1977 Jun 13); suggestions for which artists to show in the Bayly Art Museum (1979 Aug 24); Dickie Ponsette-Dart (1979 Sep 27); the Charles Locke estate (1981 Feb 1); his experience with the parochial Art Department at the University of Virginia (1981 May 1); the attitude of Chappell towards fund-raising for art (1983 Apr 20); and Edger Wind (1988 Feb 11).

Many of Warren Chappell's drawings are neither dated nor titled. Those that are dated and have titles include: "Poet and Peasant Overture" (1942 Dec 25); "Henry Fielding/ Tom Jones/ Illustration for the Modern Library" [1943]; "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1947); "King Lear" (1949); "Henry VI Part III" (1951); "The All Red Coach Study for Illustration for The Louisiana Purchase (1952); "Othello and Iago" (1955); "The Light in the Forest" (1965 Dec); "Costume Study" (1972); "Studies for Crewmen in Moby Dick " (1973); and "Sketch for Fisherman and His Wife" planned as juvenile with John Updike but was abandoned (1978).

Undated drawings by Chappell include: "King Arthur"; "Swift: Gulliver's Travels A Voyage to Laputa/ Chapter II"; "Chromosome Quadrille"; "The Common Glutton"; "Sir Sagramor"; "Mr. Elton praises Emma Woodhouse's drawings"; "The Knighting of Don Quixote"; "The Telescope"; "Clothes 1840's"; "Marley's Ghost"; "Henry VI Part II"; "Costume Sketch - Tudor"; and "The Knight Apprentice."

The oversize items include: an enclosure for a missing keepsake for Isabel Bishop's Birthday Party June 4, 1977, with the Art Students League motto inscribed, "nulla dies sine linea"; a caricature drawing of Isabel and Harold Wolff's son, Remsen, with a poem; eleven pages of proofs for Warren Chappell's illustrations for the book, Laputa ; a keepsake designed by the Composing Room, Inc. entitled, "Rudolf Koch on Warren Chappell" with an English translation; and a "Strength Before Joy Award to David Lawall" May 10, 1981, designed by Chappell to praise Lawall's perseverance.