D. Putnam Brinley

American, 1879 - 1963

(not assigned)Newport, Rhode Island, USA, North America

BiographyAmerican, born in 1879 in Newport, Rhode Island, died in 1963
Born in Newport, RI on March 8, 1879. Brinley studied at the ASL of NYC and in Europe. He was a resident of New Canaan, CT while painting murals across the U.S. During 1904-05 he lived and worked in Pasadena. By 1952 he was in NYC. He died in Connecticut in July 1963. Member: ANA, 1930. Exh: Salon d’Automne (Paris), 1907; Armory Show (NYC), 1913.
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Who's Who in American Art 1936-62; Social Security Death Index (1940-2002).
Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here.

Biography from Galleries Maurice Sternberg:

Daniel Putnam Brinley was born to an aristocratic family in Newport, Rhode Island. His great-great grandfather was the famous Revolutionary War general Israel Putnam, known as "Old Put." He is said to have inherited his mother's artistic bent, but pursued his vocation seriously going to New York City in 1900 where he studied at the Art Students League under academic teachers Bryson Burroughs and Kenyon Cox, but more importantly with John Henry Twachtman, a highly regarded American impressionist and major figure in the Cos Cob artist's colony in Connecticut. Brinley worked in Cos Cob before Twachtman's untimely death in 1902.

After that, Brinley and his wife spent four years in Paris, from 1904-08. There, Brinley lived the life of a serious art student finding his friends among the Americans studying at the Academie Julian and showing three of his works in the Autumn Salon of 1906. His bright , vibrant palette was in the mode of the American impressionists, like his early mentor and teacher, John Twachtman. In the course of their stay in Paris, the Brinleys became close friends of Edward Steichen, an ardent modernist. Brinley's natural activism led him into further associations with modern artists in New York where he returned in 1908.

Brinley's later work became more flattened, with a deeper hued palette and an overtly decorative approach compared with his earlier Paris paintings. He remained a Connecticut resident until his death, actively engaged in a variety of projects including mural work and the design of stained glass windows for the Fordham Lutheran Church in Bronx, NY.

Biography from Philip Douglas Fine Art:

Among Daniel Putnam Brinley's many travels, he spent only the summer of 1908 in Woodstock with the Art Students League Summer class. However, as did seemingly everywhere he visited, Brinley had an impact on others at Woodstock. After two successful years in Paris exhibiting and absorbing the influence of the moderns, Brinley formed an artist's group in Woodstock with Andrew Dasburg called The Sun Flower Club. Noticing that the other students were painting in a much more muted palette, they advocated painting in bright colors, thus receiving encouragement and praise of their instructor Birge Harrison.

Biography from AskART:

A painter whose landscape and genre paintings reflected his childhood near Cos Cob, Connecticut, Daniel Brinley remained active in his native state where he was one of the key figures of the Silvermine Guild of Artists. His childhood home was at Riverside, just across the Mianus River from Cos Cob. For much of his life, he was closely associated with modernists, but his style was a combination of Realism and Modernism. He was much influenced by the Armory Show of 1912, when avant-garde art from Europe was introduced in the United States. From that time, the color of his paintings was intensified, forms flattened, and compositions were tighter.

He studied at the Art Students League from 1900 to 1902 with John Twachtman, Bryson Burroughs, Kenyon Cox, and H. Siddons Mowbray and then went to Europe in 1904 for additional training. In Paris, he became involved with modernist artists such as John Marin and Max Weber and was active in several progressive art associations although his own work.

In 1908, he and his wife lived for a considerable time in Woodstock, New York, and later they became summer residents of Silvermine, Connecticut, where Brinley served in 1923 as President of the Art Guild.

In New York City, he was a charter member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors and helped organized the 1912 Armory Show. He was also an exhibitor at Alfred Stieglitz's progressive Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue. And he was a founder of the Grand Central Art Galleries as well as a member of the National Academy of Design and the National Arts Club.

Although he was active in New York, his great love was the Connecticut countryside where he lived much of the time.

Source:
Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"
"Connecticut and American Impressionism", The William Benton Museum of Art, Introduction by Harold Spencer

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