Born in Switzerland, Joseph C. Pollet (1897–1979) emigrated to New York City in 1911 from Albbruck, Germany. By age 21 he had a promising career as an advertising copywriter, while studying painting at the Art Students League with John Sloan, Robert Henri, and Homer Boss.
An important member of the Woodstock Art Colony, Pollet was best known for his portraits and realistic rural landscapes. He settled near Woodstock where he retained ties, even during the several years from 1954 until 1961 when he lived in Paris and Italy. In 1971, a fire destroyed nearly 150 of his paintings in his Greenwich Village studio.
The Historical Society of Woodstock recently acquired Pollet’s “Self Portrait,” Doug James. James recently had the painting conserved.
Pollet exhibited at the Whitney Studio Club, Pennsylvania Academy, Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie International Exhibition, St. Louis Museum, Cleveland Museum, Toledo Museums, Venice International Exhibition. He received Honorable Mention, Carnegie, 1929. He was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, 1931.
He is represented in permanent collections of the Newark Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, New York University Gallery of Living Art, Phillips Memorial Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The painting was originally acquired by Noelle Gillmor from Joseph Pollet.
Doug James is also an important member of the Woodstock community. He was instrumental in forming Byrdcliffe’s permanent collection and President Emeritus of the Byrdcliffe Guild, as well a board member of the Woodstock Artists Cemetery.
James has lived in Woodstock since 1969. A Wisconsin native, he received his degree from Princeton University. Doug James has been playing drums since he was ten. He has played with John Simon, Paul Butterfield, Happy Traum, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Al Kooper, David Sanborn, The Firesign Theater, Geoff Muldaur, Homesick James, Bucky Pizzarelli, to name a few. He has made two albums with Marilyn Crispell.
The Historical Society is committed to conserving and documenting its fine arts collection of over 700 paintings, prints, and drawings in the permanent collection. Over the past year, the Historical Society has received two conservation grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Conservation Grant Program.
This included funding for the restoration of Arnold Blanch’s “Hervey White in His Studio” (1910), Edmund Rolfe’s “Landscape” (1914), and William H. Arlt’s “Flowers” (1949).
Photos of “Self Portrait” by Joseph C. Pollet before and after conservation.
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