Catskill Mountains (N.Y.)--Social life and customs.
Painter. Sawyier, an impressionist from Frankfort, Ky, studied briefly under both William Merrit Chase in New York, and Frank Duveneck in Cincinnati, OH. Sawyier lived mostly in Kentucky, painting watercolors and oils of scenes in the central part of the state, particularly in Frankfort. He spent the last few years of his life in the Catskill Mountains in New York, where he did some of his best work.
These are two sets of letters written by Paul Sawyier. The first set of letters (1910-1917) was written to John Wilson Townsend of Lexington, Kentucky (1VF52M48) and the other set (1911-1917) was written to J.J. King of Frankfort, Ky. (1VF64M11). The majority of the letters were written from High Bridge, Ky., where Sawyier had temporarily docked his houseboat. They concern his work, particularly his progress on a portrait of bishop Henry B, Bascom, an early president of Transylvania University. He also mentions his agent, C.F. Bower and Company (Lexington furniture store) and the Shaker Ferry Boat Company of High Bridge, Ky.
One letter to Townsend is from Highmount, New York, where Sawyier was living on the estate of Mrs. Marshall Emory in the Catskill Mountains. In the letter, Sawyier discusses his large studio, another guest of Mrs. Emory, Belgian artist Edward Buyck, and arrangements he is making for exhibitions in Albany, NY and New York, NY. Sawyier says that he enjoys being around other artists and that he, "can almost hold my own in the bunch" (February 3, 1916 letter).
The photocopied letters from Sawyier to his major patron, John J. King, are with two exceptions, written from Camp Nelson, Ky., another place that Sawyier had moored his houseboat. The letters concern Sawyier's work for Mr. King. Two letters are from Fleishmans, NY, the village next to Highmount, where Sawyier had moved into the home of Phillip F. Schaefer, an amateur artist. One of the letters to King mentions that Sawyier sent "a small bunch of watercolors of the old time things around Frankfort" to King, for which he was paid two hundred dollars.