Many American artists traveled to Paris, France, to further their careers. Several of the American portraitists, realists, impressionists, and abstract artists that studied, lived, and worked in Paris, France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote letters home to family and friends describing their lives there. One of these artists was John Storrs, and here you will find letters dating from his time living in France during the 1920s.
Many American artists traveled to Paris, France, to further their careers. Several of the American portraitists, realists, impressionists, and abstract artists that studied, lived, and worked in Paris, France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote letters home to family and friends describing their lives there. One of these artists was John Storrs, and here you will find letters dating from his time living in France during the 1920s.
John Henry Bradley Storrs (1885-1956) worked primarily in Chicago, Illinois, and Mer, France, as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. In 1905 he went to Berlin with the intention of studying music, but instead chose to study sculpture in Hamburg, Germany. He also spent time in Paris and traveled throughout Europe, Turkey, and Egypt in late 1907. After another period of art study in the US, Storrs returned to Paris in 1912, where he studied at the Académie Julian and with the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. During this period his work was greatly influenced by cubism and futurism. In 1914 he married French writer Marguerite Deville-Chabrol, and after briefly returning to the US to exhibit his work and working in a Paris hospital throughout World War I, he settled in Mer, France, with his family. He would split his time between working and exhibiting in France and the US for the rest of his life.
Explore the fully digitized John Henry Bradley Storrs papers on the Archives of American Art website!
