This figure study of a young woman clutching a flower bloom from a vase was entered as a print in the inaugural October, 1921 exhibition of the Art Center, Inc. based in New York City at 65 and 67 East  56th St. The purpose of this collective organization or  movement was to “advance the Decorative Crafts and the Industrial and Graphic Arts of America” according to a pasted exhibition label on mount verso.

The following notice for the Art Center appeared earlier that year in the July, 1921 issue of the trade journal The National Lithographer. Charles Hellmuth was a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America, one of the groups making up the organization:

A Movement to Advance the Decorative Crafts and Graphic Arts of America.

Editor National Lithographer:

Dear Sir:—The Art Alliance of America, the Art Directors’ Club, the New York Society of Craftsmen, the Pictorial Photographers of America and the Society of Illustrators have all united to co-operate in a new movement known as the Art Center, Inc. This movement has been launched in the form of a corporation with Mrs. Ripley Hitchcock as president, Charles Dana Gibson as vice-president, Col. Wade H. Hayes as treasurer and Heyworth Campbell as secretary, “to advance the decorative crafts and the industrial and graphic arts of America.”

Its first move in this direction has been to acquire the two buildings at 65 and 67 East Fifty-sixth Street and remodel them into the Art Center Building, with galleries of all sizes for exhibitions of all kinds which involve the application of the arts of design to the every-day life of our people. The remodeling is now approaching completion, the building to be opened October 1st, and the Tiffany Foundation and the Inter-Theatre Arts Society have both engaged permanent quarters in this Art Center Building, and other organizations are negotiating for space.

There is a strong community of interest among the various organizations whose work is co-ordinated in this movement. The first of these, the Art Alliance of America, promotes co-operation between artists, art students, artisans, publishers, manufacturers, advertisers and others who are engaged in artistic activities. The second, the Art Directors Club, is a group of those whose function it is to advise commerce in the use of art and to interpret for art the requirements of commerce. Its purposes are to Broaden the scope and increase the usefulness of the art director, to raise the standard of aesthetic and commercial values in art as applied to industry, to establish and maintain a code of ethical practice in the buying and selling of art, to encourage more serviceable methods of art education, and to recognize and exploit art work of merit by exhibition and awards of honor.

The New York Society of Craftsmen encourages the production of works of domestic and industrial art; it also endeavors to develop the true spirit of craftsmanship, namely, the appreciation of work for its beauty rather than solely for its commercial value. The Pictorial Photographers of America endeavor by all means to stimulate and encourage those engaged and interested in the art of photography and to raise the standards of this art in the United States.

Finally, the Society of Illustrators has for its object the advancement of commercial art, especially as it relates to magazine and book illustration, advertising in publications or by posters and kindred activities. Art Center, Inc., is intended as a rallying-point for all such societies having the development of decorative and ornamental design at heart and that are devoted to the practical application of American art to trade and industry.

Many people who are prominent socially, financially and in the world of art are serving on the Board of Directors and the Advisory Committee of Art Center, Inc. Among them are Mrs. John Henry Hammond, W. Frank Purdy, Dr. John H. Finley, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, William H. Johns, Otto H. Kahn, George A. Plimpton, Charles Scribner, Jr., Louis Comfort Tiffany, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Mrs. Willard Straight and John Clyde Oswald.
Art Center, Inc., is a holding company, incorporated for $10,000 in stock owned by the co-operating organizations and $250,000 in debenture bonds now being privately marketed. These bonds carry 6 per cent interest and mature in thirty years. The interest and also a sinking fund will be provided by the renting of club rooms, studios and galleries. More than $130,000 of the bonds have been sold to many prominent people, and an effort is being made to dispose of $70,000 more in order to meet the expense of reconstructing and fitting the building for the work of the Art Center, to be opened in October. Yours truly.     Roy Mason.  (1.)

Mount recto: ink stamp on corner of primary laid-paper mount:  Hellmuth

Mount verso: pasted white label for Art Center (11.4 x 17.7 cm) on original gray mount. Printed label reads as follows:

OPENING EXHIBITION of the ART CENTER, Inc.
to advance the Decorative Crafts and the Industrial and Graphic Arts of America

Exhibitor’s Name     Chas. A. Hellmuth.
Address                      338 W. 22nd St.  N.Y.C.
Agent
Full Title                    #1.  Study of Miss A.

You are requested to remove your valued
exhibits submitted to the Jury of the Art Center, Inc., on ____________________1921.

Exhibition marking:

676  (orange graphite)

-black ink stamp:

Chas. A. Hellmuth
338 W. 22nd St.,
New York

1. Correspondence: in: The National Lithographer: New York: July, 1921: pp. 42-43