This selection of affectionate communiqués to and from American artists gives us insight into the lives of painters, sculptors, illustrators, and others—their relationships, perceptions, and creative energies—from the mid-19th century to the late 20th. They also allow us to empathize with artists through the most universal of human emotions: love in all its permutations.

"I have just unlocked my little box and found your letter -- and the world has drifted off a thousand mi...

read more»

This selection of affectionate communiqués to and from American artists gives us insight into the lives of painters, sculptors, illustrators, and others—their relationships, perceptions, and creative energies—from the mid-19th century to the late 20th. They also allow us to empathize with artists through the most universal of human emotions: love in all its permutations.

"I have just unlocked my little box and found your letter -- and the world has drifted off a thousand miles and left me alone with you again," painter Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890) wrote his beloved Eleanor not long before he died. "Platt my neighbor," he continued, referring to Charles Adams Platt (1861-1933), the architect who later would design the Freer Gallery of Art, "is amazed at the amount of time I can spend doing nothing, just as if thinking of you were an unimportant occupation."