Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Theodor or Feodor-Wilhelm Brenson

Male 1892 -


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  • Name Theodor or Feodor-Wilhelm Brenson 
    Born 15 Nov 1892  Jelgava (Mitau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Person ID I4380  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father Isidor Brensohn or Brenson,   b. 27 Sep 1854, Jelgava (Mitau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 31 Dec 1928, RÄ«ga, RÄ«ga, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 74 years) 
    Mother Klara or Clara Herzenberg,   b. 4 Dec 1859, Jelgava (Mitau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 17 Jun 1939, RÄ«ga, RÄ«ga, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 79 years) 
    Married 12 May 1883  Mitau, Kurland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F174  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Wally Marie Georgia Grell,   b. 11 Aug 1903, RÄ«ga, RÄ«ga, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 30 Jul 1932  Paris, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F343  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. Received 30 Apr 2009 a copy of the following from Irene Gottleib Slatter entitled "Archival Reference about Brenson Family. It was prepared for Nina Kossman Dec 2006 and is report no. 3-K-7622; 7794N by Latvijas Valsts Vestures Arhivs (Latvian National Archives), Slokas iela 16, Riga, LV-1007. The following is only a partial transcript concerning this individual; please see the notes of Isidor Brenson within this database to see full and complete transcript including sources and documentation:
      " - son Theodor (Feodor)-Wilhelm, born on November 15 (Julian calendar, 27 November - Gregorian calendar) of 1892 in Mitau (see his photo from the Latvian passports for 1920, 1939). His occupation - engineer architect. On July 30 of 1932 in Paris he married to Wally Marie Georgia Grell (she was a widow, according to the marriage certificate Theodor was a widower and divorced, born on August 11 of 1903 in Riga, according to the house register her occupation - actor. In 1936 they were registered as living at Dzernavu Street 64, apt. 4, on September 21 of 1936 they left for Paris. In 1939 Theodor arrived to Riga and was registered as living at Dzernavu Street 64, apt. 4, he struck off the house register on August 28 of 1939 as moved to Paris."

      BIOGRAPHY:
      1. Of Isidor's and Clara's four children - Ruth, Ellen, Theo, and Robby, only one - Theo - survived the war, as he was not living in Latvia at the time. Aliases of Theodore: Aliases: Fedor Sidorovič Brenson; Teodoro Brenson; Teodors Brensons.

      2. Website http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?artist=79237 accessed 11 Jan 2009:
      "Quick Facts and Keywords for Theodore Brenson
      Birth/Death: - 1893 (Riga, Latvia) - 1959.
      Lived/Active: New York.
      Often Known For: illustrator, graphics.
      Methods: Illustration/Illustrator; Palette Knife; Printmaking/Graphics.
      Mediums: Printmaking Specialty
      Styles: Abstract Expressionism; New York School.
      Subjects: Genre-Human Activity.
      Associations: American Abstract Artists-Member.
      Some Exhibitions: Art Institute of Chicago-Exhibited; Brooklyn Museum; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Academy of Design-Exhibited; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts-Exhibited; Whitney Museum of American Art."

      3. Website http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!208930!0#focus accessed 11 Jan 2009 of the Smithsonian Institute Research Information System (Siris) Archives, Manuscripts, and Photographs Catalog
      Creator: Brenson, Theodore, 1893-1959
      Title: Theodore Brenson papers, 1937-1959.
      Phy. Description: 406 items. Reels 848 through 849.
      Additional forms: 35mm microfilm reels 848 through 849 available at Archives of American Art offices and through inter-library loan.
      Bio / His Notes: Illustrator, etcher, painter, writer, teacher, and lecturer (New York City). Born in Latvia, Brenson authored and illustrated books on European travel, art, and education. In addition, he contributed to national magazines and taught at the College of Wooster in Ohio.
      Summary: Correspondence, mostly personal; catalogues and announcements; clippings; lecture and teaching materials, poetry and other writings; biographical material; and miscellany. Among the correspondents are Louis Bromfield, Fitz Roy Barrington, Carol Janeway, Joseph Lacasse, Hannah Weber Sachs, Albert Reese, Joop Sanders, Jerome Melquist, and Howard Conant.
      Language Note: Some of the letters are in French.
      Provenance: Donated 1959-1960 by Mrs. Theodore Brenson, widow of Brenson.
      Restrictions: Patrons must use microfilm copy.
      Subject-Topical: Art teachers.
      Form / Genre: Exhibition catalogs.
      Repository Loc: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
      Local Number: AAA 848-849 (American Archives of Art)."

      4. Ancestry.com's "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957":
      A. Theodore Brenson, age 48, married, artist, Latvian, b. Mitavo, Latvia, arrived 8 Jan 1941 at New York, New York, aboard the ship "Marques de Commillas" from the port of Lisbon, Portugal. He gave the name of a friend as Armand Landeck. Notes that he can read English, Italian, French Russian, and German. Immigration visa number QIV-235 issued at Marseille 31 Oct 1940. Last permanent address was Paris, France.
      B. Theodore Brenson, US passport no. 54316, b. in Latvia, arriving on the S.S. Sibajak 6 Sep 1953 in NY, NY from Rotterdam departing there 27 Aug 1953. Traveled first class.
      C. Theodore Brenson, US passport no. 54316, b. in Latvia, arriving on the S.S. Zuiderkruis 4 Sep 1954 in NY, NY from Rotterdam departing there 25 Aug 1954. Traveling with him on the same passport is Michael F. Brenson born in New York, New York. Traveled first class.
      D. Theodore Brenson, US passport no. 54316, b. in Latvia, arriving on the S.S. Groote Beer 10 Sep 1955 in NY, NY from Rotterdam departing there 1 Sep 1955. Traveled tourist class.
      E. Theodore Brenson, US passport no. A750930, b. in Latvia, arriving on the S.S. Zuiderkruis 7 Sep 1956 in NY, NY from Rotterdam departing there 29 Aug 1956. Traveled tourist class.

      5. Ancestry.com's "New York Petitions for Naturalization": No. 6710415 for Theodore Brenson residing at 19 East 59th Street, N.Y. N.Y, age 54 years. Date of order of admission and certificate is July 31, 1947 by the U.S. District Court at New York City, New York. Petition No. 557889. Signed by Theodore Brenson. Stamped no. 7578363.

      6. Some biography on Michael F. Brenson, son of Theodore:
      A. From the website http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=1454 accessed 12 jan 2009: "Michael F. Brenson, faculty member of CCS-Bard and Bard's Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, was an art critic at the 'New York Times' from 1982 to 1991 and has been writing about art and artists for more three decades. He received his B.A. from Rutgers University, and an M.A. in creative writing and a Ph.D. in art history from Johns Hopkins University. He has curated exhibitions of Magdalena Abakanowicz, P.S. 1 (1993); Ryoji Koie, Gallery at Takashimaya (1994); and Jonathan Silver, Sculpture Center (1995). Brenson's publications include 'Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the Place of the Visual Artist in America (2001)'; 'Sol LeWit: Concrete Block Structures (2002)'; and 'Acts of Engagement: Writings on Art, Criticism, and Institutions, 1993-2002' (2004). He is the author of museum catalogue essays on Elizabeth Catlett, Mel Edwards, Alberto Giacometti, Maya Lin, Juan Munoz, Martin Puryear, and David Smith; as well as numerous other essays on modern and contemporary sculpture, public art, and contemporary art and its institutions. He is currently working on a biography of David Smith."
      B. From the website http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/03/art/michael-brenson-with-david-levi-strauss-and-phong-bui accessed 12 Jan 2009: "My father, Theodore Brenson, a Latvian by birth, became an abstract painter a few years after he came to this country in 1941. He was around the Abstract Expressionists and showed with many of them in three of the five Ninth Street shows. I grew up in a studio. You could smell the paint, which had a physicality and texture that I guess I breathed from pretty much the time I was born. And although I didn't think much about art growing up, I went to many museums and accompanied my father to panel discussions and never reacted against it. So it was really always a part of me. Later in college, at Rutgers, while an English major, I took an art history course each of my sophomore, junior, and senior years. After graduation I took a menial job at Huntington Hartford's Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle. After a few months, I knew I wanted to be involved with ideas professionally and decided to go to graduate school in art history, which led to a Ph.D. from John Hopkins University... As soon as I got my Ph.D., I left the academic world and left the country for France. I had a need to be on my own, to find a language that seemed real to me, to figure things out in my own terms, and maybe that's a little bit closer to the ways in which artists do things. I never wanted to be part of a movement or a group, or of the ways in which other people around me thought or wrote despite the enormous sympathy I have with many artists and writers and other friends. Living in Paris, having to survive with no money, really starting from scratch at age 32, helped make this immersion in the moment part of my everyday life. In Paris, I got so much pleasure out of simple things-cafes, markets, streets, getting from here to there. I felt there was a truth in that."

      BIRTH:
      1. See father's extensive biography confirming that the four children Ruth, Theodore, Ellen, and Robert were all born in Mitau, Courland.

      2. Ancestry.com's "World War II Draft Registrations": Serial number U4080, Theodore Brenson, 19 E. 59th St., NYC, NY, phone Pl5-0466, age 49, b. 27 Nov 1892 at Mitava, Russia, Prof. Henri Focillon of Yale University in New Haven, Ct, named as a person who will always know his address, no employer, artist/painter working as same address as residence. Signed: Theodore Brenson.

      DEATH:
      1. Ancestry.com's Historical Newspapers "Stars and Stripes Newspaper, Europe, Mediterranean, and North Africa Edition for 25 Sep 1959:
      "Artist Brenson, 67, Dies. Peterborough, N.H. (UPI) - Theodore Brenson, 67, painter, art teacher and writer, died at his summer residence here."

      2. Website Rootsweb.com accessed 11 Jan 2009 shows the following obituary: "Brenson, Theodore; 67; Peterborough NH; Tonawanda News (NY); 1959-9-23; ckalota."

      OBITUARY:
      1. Ancestry.com's "Historical Newspapers" for the New York Times:
      "Theodore Brenson, Artist, Dies; Ex-Teacher at Douglass College. Theodore Brenson, painter, art teacher and writer on art, died Monday in Peterborough, N.H., at the age of 67. He had suffered a heart attack earlier this year, but spent the summer at the McDowell Colony for artists in Peterborough. His home was at 51 West Eighty-first Street.
      Mr. Brenson had retired this year as chairman of the Deperatment of Art of Douglass College in New Brunswick, N.J., a post he had held since 1954. This year also, he had published a book, "Light into Color, Light into Space: paintings by Thoeodre Brenson." It was wrttten under a research grant from Rutgers University Research Council for creative research in painting.
      Born in Riga, Latvia, Mr. Brenson did not come to this country until 1941, after the Germans had captured Paris. He received his art training at the Universities of Moscow and Riga and the Beaux Arts in Leningrad. After a year in Rome, and exhibitions in Italy, Germany and Sweden, he settled in 1929 in Paris, where he taught and painted. The French Government accorded him the title of Officier d'Academie.
      After teaching in New York studios, Mr. Brenson became chairman of the department of art at the College of Wooster in Ohio in 1945.
      Mr. Brenson's work, much of it non-objective and abstract, has been purchased by the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Carnegie Institute of Contemporary Arts, as well as by museums abroad.
      He has been represented in many group exhibitions, among those of the Society of American Graphic Artists, the National Academy of Design, the Library of Congress, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. This week, the Montclair (N.J.) Art Museum is exhibiting a collection of his paintings.
      In 1957, Mr. Brenson was given the Prix de la Critique in Paris. In 1955, he received the Channing Hare Award of the Society of the Four Arts at Palm Beach. He was Life Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters.
      He was a member of American Abstract Artists, the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors and Artists Equity Association. Mr. Brenson formerly served on the Visual Arts Panel of the American Committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
      A son, Michael, survives."

      PHOTOS:
      1. The Website http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/riga/Ancestors_Photos.htm accessed 11 Jan 2009 has the following photos and descriptions of which I have copied the photos into my Photo file. The descriptions are as follows:
      "Brennsohn Family (Brenson). These are the relatives of Nina Kossman ":
      A. "(Left) Isidor Brenson (aka Issidorus Brennsohn, b. 15 September 1854, d. 1927), an orthopaedic doctor and a historian of medicine, had a private practice in Riga. He compiled and published a biographical dictionary <http://www.jewishgen.org/Courland/doctors.htm> of the doctors of Courland; his other works included dictionaries of the doctors of Livland and of Estland (Estonia). Klara Hertzenberg (right, d. 1939) was his wife. Great grandparents of Nina."
      B. "Isidor and Clara Brenson's four children, left to right: my great-aunt Ellen Brenson, grandmother Ruth Brenson, great-uncle Theo Brenson, and great-uncle Robby Brenson. They were born and raised in Mitau/Jelgava. Only Theo survived the war, as he was not living in Latvia at the time. Robby Brenson (b. 7 March 1889) graduated from law school and worked in Riga for a law firm. He had two sons, Erik and Enar. Robby and Enar and Eric were all taken away and killed by Latvians during July, 1941 Ruth and Ellen were taken to the Riga ghetto and perished there."
      C. "Left to right: my great-aunt Ellen Brenson Melzer (b. 23 December 1895 d. 1941), an orthopaedic physician; her husband, Yakov Melzer, a pianist; and their son Anatol (6 years old). All three were killed by the Germans in Nazi-occupied Latvia."
      D. "Two photos of my paternal grandmother Ruth Brenson Kossman (b. 28 March 1885 d. 1941)."

      MARRIAGE:
      1. From Michael Brenson January 13, 2009: "My mother, Vera Blumenthal, was my father's third wife; she was 25 years younger. I believe their families knew each other, perhaps from Berlin, which the Blumenthals left in 1937, perhaps in Riga, from which the Blumenthals sailed to London, then to the US, in 1939. My mother's baby sister, Gerda, got polio in Riga, which kept her in bed and the family in the city for six months. My maternal grandfather, Adolph, was also a surgeon [ear, nose and throat]. I can't track down the histories of my father's previous two marriages but may be able to find the names of those two wives. I was born in 1942. My mother and father got married in 1945. When my father arrived in the States he was married to a dancer who lived in London. France remained my father's first home. He never felt entirely comfortable in America. Did you know that my father, like Gerda and my mother, converted to Catholicism? There was nothing Jewish about my upbringing. I have assumed that my families on both sides were assimilated cosmopolitan Jews."