Ernest Albert

Ernest Albert, born Ernest Albert Brown, (August 15, 1857 – March 25, 1946) was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and scenic designer. He was a prolific scenic designer, first in St. Louis and Chicago and then on Broadway. He is considered a major American landscape painter and was elected the first president of the Allied Artists of America in 1919.^[1]

Ernest Albert was born in Brooklyn on August 15, 1857.^[2] His birth name was Ernest Albert Brown, but as an artist he was known as Ernest Albert.^[3] His parents were Daniel Webster Brown and Harriet Dunn ( Smith ) Brown.^[3] His father was a clothing retailer. At the age of 15 he began studies with at the Montague Art School with John Barnard Whittaker (1836–1926).^[4] He concurrently studied at the Brooklyn Art Institute as a teenager.^[4] While a student at those schools, he won the Graham Art Medal at the age of 15.^[1] At the age of 16 he began an apprenticeship in scenic painting.^[2]

In 1880 Albert moved to St. Louis to take up a position as the resident art director and scenic designer at Pope's Theatre.^[5] One of the many productions he designed for at the theatre was for the premiere of Charles E. Verner's Eviction (1881).^[6] In 1883 he joined the design firm of Joe Toomey and Tom Noxon; at which point the firm became known as Noxon, Albert & Toomey.^[7] While St. Louis based, the design firm had a national presence and worked in other cities in the United States.^[7] Albert's initial work in the firm was as designer for the Grand Opera House and Olympia Theatre in St. Louis.^[7]

After five years in St. Louis, Albert relocated to Chicago where he continued to work as a scenic designer and painter with Noxon, Albert & Toomey.^[1][8] In 1885 he was the resident scenic designer at the Grand Opera House, Chicago;^[9] and continued to design for this theatre in successive years while also designing for other Chicago playhouses like the Haymarket Theatre.^[8] He notably designed the interior of this latter theatre when it was built in 1887.^[10] In 1888 he redesigned the interior of the Grand Opera House when it was remodeled.^[11] In 1889 he had a major critical triumph at the Grand Opera House with his sets for the premiere of Clay M. Greene's Blue Beard, Jr.;^[12][13] a production which toured nationally including stops at Boston's Tremont Theatre (1889)^[14] and Broadway's Niblo's Garden (1890).^[15] In 1890 he designed sets for The Mikado at the Chicago Auditorium.^[16]

Albert also designed for theaters in other cities with Noxon, Albert & Toomey such as Buffalo, New York, and St. Louis.^[9] He designed several sets for Lawrence Barrett and Edwin Booth's touring company in the mid to late 1880s; drawing particular praise from New York City and Boston critics for his designs for the William Shakespeare plays Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Julius Caesar.^[17][18] In 1890 he designed the sets for the West End revival of Watts Phillips' The Dead Heart at the Lyceum Theatre, London.^[19] He designed sets for two touring plays which starred the actor William H. Crane in the early 1890s: David D. Lloyd and Sydney Rosenfeld's The Senator and Augustus Thomas's For Money.^[20]

Albert dissolved his partnership with Noxon and Toomey when he formed a new design firm, Albert, Grover & Burridge, with Walter Burridge and O.D. Grover in January 1892.^[21] In 1892 he participated in the planning of the World's Columbian Exposition; taking on the responsibility for choosing paint colors for the exposition's buildings.^[5] He was a founding member of the Chicago chapter of the American Society of Scenic Painters.^[1]

Albert returned to New York City, and began a prolific career as a scenic designer for Broadway productions with Victorien Sardou's 1894 play Gismonda.^[1] He designed sets for more than 100 Broadway shows from 1894 through 1918; with his last work for the Broadway stage being the sets for The Better 'Ole (1918). He also continued to design for productions outside of New York. In 1899 he designed the sets for the theatre troop of the Rogers Brothers; including the play A Reign of Terror by playwright John J. McNally (1852–1931).^[22]

In 1916 Albert moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, and the last 30 years of his life were spent dedicated almost entirely to landscape painting; a pursuit he had begun earlier around the turn of the century.^[5] He participated in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally during his career.^[5] His artwork is included in the collections of the Florence Griswold Museum and the Wadsworth Atheneum.^[23]

Ernest Albert died on March 25, 1946, in New Canaan, Connecticut, at the age of 88.^[5]

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• Frederick Baekeland (1998). Roads Less Traveled: American Paintings, 1833-1935. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University Press.
• Bloom, Ken (1996). American Song: A-S. Schirmer Books. ISBN 9780028645735.
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• Brideson, Cynthia; Brideson, Sara (2015). Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813160900.
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• Derby, George; White, James Terry, eds. (1950). "ALBERT, ERNEST (Ernest Albert Brown)". The National Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. 36. J. T. White Company.
• Denenberg, Thomas Andrew; Kurtz Lansing, Amy; Danly, Susan (2009). Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England. Portland Museum of Art.
• Dietz, Dan (2022). The Complete Book of 1900s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781538168943.
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• Gänzl, Kurt (1994). The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, Volume 2. Schirmer Books. ISBN 9780028714455.
• Leonard, William T. (1981). Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television, Volume 2. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810813748.
• Letellier, Robert Ignatius (2015). Operetta: A Sourcebook, Volume II. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443885089.
• Jasen, David A. (2004). Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135949013.
• Koke, Richard J., ed. (1982). "Ernest Albert". American Landscape and Genre Paintings in the New-York Historical Society: A Catalog of the Collection, Including Historical, Narrative, and Marine Art, Volume 1. New-York Historical Society. ISBN 9780816103645.
• Mantle, Burns; Sherwood, Garrison P.; Chapman, John Arthur (1944). The Best Plays of 1899-1909. Dodd, Mead & Co.
• Salem, James M. (1971). A Guide to Critical Reviews: The musical, 1909-1989. (3rd ed., 1991). Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810823877.
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• Shakespeare, William (1998). Madelaine, Richard (ed.). Antony and Cleopatra. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521629041.
• Sherwood, Garrison P.; Chapman, L. John (1955). The Best Plays of 1894-1899. Dodd, Mead & Co.
• Solomon, Jon (2016). Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474407960.
• Suskin, Steven (2000). Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195125993.
• Woodworth, Christine; Osborne, Elizabeth A. (2015). Working in the Wings: New Perspectives on Theatre History and Labor. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809334216.

• Ernest Albert at the Internet Broadway Database