Ogden Pleissner
American, 1905 - 1983
Ogden M. Pleissner Born New York, 1905 Died England, 1983 Ogden Pleissner was born in Brooklyn in 1905, and educated at the Friends School. Later, he studied figure painting and portraiture with Frank DuMond and Frederick J. Boston at Manhattan's Art Students League. Pleissner married Mary Corbett in Portland, Oregon in 1929. The couple settled in Brooklyn, as Pleissner took a position as a teacher as Pratt University for the next four years. Pleissner began painting in watercolors in the 1930s. In 1932 the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased an oil painting of Brooklyn Heights from him, an act that made him its youngest artist. In 1935, he taught at the National Academy and was elected an Associate and then Academician, all the while keeping various studios in Brooklyn and Manhattan. During World War II, he painted for the United States Air Force, and also illustrated the Normandy invasion for Life magazine. After his return from the war, he moved to Pawlet, Vermont where he built a house and kept a studio. In March of 1974 tragedy struck as Pleissner's wife, Mary, suddenly died. After three years of mourning his loss, Pleissner married again to Mary Marion Gould. The new couple moved to Manchester, Vermont that very same year. Pleissner died in London, England at age 78. Pleissner's work is included in more than thirty public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and hangs in the offices of the Pentagon, West Point, and the Air Force Academy. Memberships: National Academy; Society of American Etchers; Allied Artists of America; American Watercolor Society; Brooklyn Society of Artists; Century Association; Philadelphia Watercolor Club; Baltimore Watercolor Club; Salmagundi Club; Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts; Audubon Artists; Lyme Art Association Exhibitions: Salons of America, 1923-25, 1928,1943; Corcoran Gallery Biennials, 1928-53 (9 times); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1928, 1933-49, 1952-53; Carnegie Institute; Art Institute of Chicago; National Academy of Design, 1959 (Altman Prize); American Watercolor Society, 1956 (gold); Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Arts Club, 1928-31 (prizes); Salmagundi Club, 1935 (prize), 1938 (prize); Whitney Museum of American Art, 1938-56; Hirschl and Adler Gallery, New York City, 1970s. Works Held: Amon Carter Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Toledo Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Museum of Art; Swope Gallery; New Britain Museum; Canajoharie Museum; Reading Museum of Art; University of Nebraska; University of Idaho; High Museum of Art; Shelburne Museum, Vermont; Cincinnati Art Museum. Reference Material: Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 1. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds.,Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.; The Art of Ogden M. Pleissner, Peter Bergh, David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., Boston Massachusetts, 1984. Biography courtesy of David Cook Galleries.
Ogden M. Pleissner was considered a Realist unimpeded by sentimentality. He began his art training at the Brooklyn Friends School and later attended the Art Students League. Pleissner's first canvases were of the Grand Tenton Mountains in Wyoming. He became best known for his watercolors of New England scenes. During WWII, Pleissner painted for the Air Force and Life Magazine featured his work based on the Normandy breakthrough. His post-war subjects became concerned with urban life in France, Italy and Spain. Pleissner had precision and clarity in the sense of light that comes through in many of his paintings. This combined with his selection of only pictorial elements that contribute to an overall composition, really characterize his work. Pleissner was also the director and trustee of the Tiffany Foundation. He died in 1983.Biography courtesy of The Caldwell Gallery.
