Salmagundi Library Newsletter | Summer | 2023 | New acquisitions : Alphaeus Cole
Dear Salmagundians,
This is the nineth Library newsletter. Please review the others at your convenience. They are most informative. Also very pleased to inform you that the Salmagundi Library received a gift of four letters written by historic artist member Alphaeus P. Cole (1876-1988) donated by Trevor Stewart, a distant relative.
These letters have been carefully transcribed by Jay Barksdale. Please see below.
Best,
Alexander Katlan
Salmagundi Library Committee Chairman
New Acquisitions
The Library and the Club have had the good fortune of a donation of 4 letters from Alphaeus Philemon Cole. Cole, long a member of the Club, was born in 1876, studied in Paris and Italy, exhibited all over the place, is represented in many museums here and in the UK, and lived at the Hotel Chelsea for his last 35 years. Trevor Stewart, Salmagundi RP 2022, is the donor and a distant relative of Cole. We thank him and are grateful for the gift.
Below is his summary of the letters (which include a fifth and sixth, to Cole from his nephew Jack Walmsley and from Jack to Uncle Robert – see below ) followed by a transcript of the letter of November 22, 1959, an example of Cole’s beautiful script, the portrait of Peggy and a charcoal head, similar to the one mentioned below and owned by the Club.
The letters, written on blue air-letter stationery, are cataloged and shelved at A6-13 in the Library.
Again, many thanks to Mr. Stewart.
360 West 22nd St
New York 11 N.Y.
Nov 22nd 1959
Dear Robert,
It was a great pleasure to hear from you & to know that you received the letter I sent on from dear Lucy. I do not know whether I or Peggy ever sent you a photograph of the portrait I painted of her when she visited us in this country. I exhibited it in the National Arts Club, where it took the first prize, known as the Gregg Memorial prize of $250 two hundred & fifty dollars. A grand dinner was given for the artists when the prizes were awarded. It was a happy day for Peggy.
Later on the painting was awarded the medal of the Artist’s Professional League at the Montclair Museum in Jersey City [sic – New Jersey is meant]. We sent photographs to Arthur’s family, but their only comment was, “too bad Alphaeus didn’t paint her with a smile.”
Well Lucy was very happy over the portrait, and the artists here think it is one of my best. I wonder what will become of it when I am gone. It makes me sad to think Peggy has never been able to enjoy my recent successes in the art world. She was aware in 1956 that the small portrait I painted of her took a one hundred dollar prize at the exhibition of the Hudson Valley Art Association, but her pleasure was of short duration, she shortly after showed signs of her coming illness, and took little interest in anything.
Nevertheless, up to now, my work has brought me small prizes ever since 1956 every year. This year two, one for the best charcoal head in the Salmagundi exhibit (black & white) and one for the most outstanding painting in the National exhibition held in Maine during the summer. Dear Peggy who did so much to try to help me, now that some recognition seems to be coming my way, cannot enjoy the fruits of her efforts.
I do not know whether I ever wrote you of the numerous commissions I carried out in Alabama. Altogether I painted nine large canvases 30” x 40” during the summer. I could not have done the work, had it not been for the Dominican Sisters help in looking after Peggy in the hospital. They receive in payment all that Jack sends Peggy from Lucy’s estate, $125 a month. The fees here are enormous for nursing homes, nothing less than $50 a week, mostly $75. The first month the nuns charged me $201.50. The Mother Superior gave orders that the charge should be reduced. On account of my unexpected successes, I have been able to have the pleasure of making donations to the nuns of $170 this year.
I am sorry to hear of your difficulty in getting about. I am now over 83 years old, and astonish people by my activities. God has been indeed good to me. Peggy is undoubtedly slowly sinking. I pray for her daily, that she may pass away without pain & be found worthy of the promises of Our Lord. May God bless you & yours.
Ever your bro. Alphaeus.
Note about the Alphaeus Philemon Cole correspondence
which I have given to the Salmagundi Club
Trevor Stewart (Salmagundi RP 2022)
July 14, 2023
I recently discovered four letters from Alphaeus Philemon Cole to his brother-in-law and my maternal step grandfather Robert W. Walmsley. Alphaeus married Robert’s sister the English sculptor Margaret Ward Walmsley (1873-1961), also known as Peggy, in 1903. Robert and Margaret were children of John N. Walmsley (born c.1843), a Weslyan minister.
Alphaeus’s letters describe some of his work but were mainly written to keep Robert apprised of the declining state of Peggy’s health and their financial arrangements.
1957, June 14. Alphaeus explains to Robert the seriousness of Peggy’s condition. She was living at home but in the daily care of the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor. She was expected to die soon and the nun who was her nurse suggested to Alphaeus that he ask one Father Gilhooley to visit and pray for her, which he did. Alphaeus describes the scene, which is somewhat ironic when you know that her father was a Weslyan minister and had baptized her. Anyway, Peggy rallied remarkably and told the nun that she was happy and would have become a Catholic before but there were so many [Protestant] ministers in her family. After a while she slipped back into her comatose state.
1958, July 6. Letter from Uncle Alphaeus to Jack Walmsley in England (Margaret was Jack’s aunt), forwarded by Jack to his Uncle Robert in South Africa on July 27. Alphaeus’s letter is mainly about financial and will arrangements, caring for Peggy, and providing for the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor. She was 86 and Alphaeus about to turn 82 (on July 12). He says that he is beginning to feel the pangs of old age and reflects on his mortality. He went on to live for another 30 years, dying in 1988 at the Chelsea Hotel at the age of 112 and 136 days. At the time of his death, he was the oldest verified human man. Jack and Elisabeth Walmsley (nee Scales) lived on Valance Farm, which Elisabeth had inherited from her father. The farm is in lckleton, a village a bout nine miles south of Cambridge and near the town of Saffron Walden in Essex. Jack was a bank manager and took little part in farming activities. Hence, no doubt, the financial discussion. [I picked up this information about Jack from the lckleton Society’s website, which has a photo of his marriage to Elisabeth in 1942].
1958, October 26. Letter from Alphaeus to Robert. Mostly about Peggy and finances but he is pleased to have painted two portraits for $1,500.
1959, November 22. Letter from Alphaeus to Robert. The most interesting of the four letters. He is evidently having some professional success, which he describes, including at Salmagundi. He laments that Peggy, who at this stage has been admitted to the recently opened Calvary hospital run by the Dominican Sisters (in the Bronx) is not around to share in his success.
How these letters came into my possession
These letters were in papers my mother gave me. She had in turn received them from Nancy Walmsley her stepsister. Nancy was the daughter of Robert and his first wife Helen. Helen died and in 1951 Robert married Edith Bate, my maternal grandmother, who had been widowed in 1929. Robert and Edith are pictured here in 1951 in Pretoria, South Africa.
The Salmagundi Club has this lovely 1919 portrait of Margaret painted by Alphaeus.
