ividing his life between New York City and the small town of Hunrer, New York, Nachan Dolinsky particularly en-
joyed painting the landscape thar surrounded the quiet village as well as portraits of the community's children. For a"lmost eighcyyears the artisr maintained in the small town, inspired by the beauty
a residence
of the land and the friendliness of its people. Never drawn to melancholy subjects, Dolinsky painred rhe
joyful aspects ofhis life. In 1893 the Dolinsky family immigrared from Russia, where they had lived in Moscow and Kiev, ro New York City. Nathan, the second youngest ofseven children, was almost three years old when his family arrived in America. The Dolinskys enjoyed the cul-
tural activities of city life yet found rranquiliry and peace in the rural village of Hunter. The family vaca-
tioned there for rnany years and later purchased a 3,000-acre farm and established a permanenr residence. As the family macured, Nathan's parents supported the interescs of all their children, including young Nathan's arciscic ambitions. Dolinsky was especially close to his siscer, Aida, whom he frequently used as a rqodel throughout her life. Aida, in turn, was his biggest champion. At rhe age of ten, he studied formally with Henry McBride, dean of rhe American critics at the Educational Alliance, and ar rhirteen he studied at the National Academy of Design. He concinued to study underJerome Meyers and also received instruction from Siegmund Ivanovski, who became the Polish art comrnissioner after World War
I.1
Dolinsky began exhibiting his works when he was sixteen, in private shows, one-man, and small group presentations; however, he steered away from competitive exhibitions.2 In 1972, he became chairman of the Art Guild in New York Ciry. The fo11owing year Dolinsky displayed one of his oils, The Sightin the Armory Show of 1913. At rhar rime he was twenty-three years old. the youngesr arrisr ro parricipate in rhe famous exhibition. Dolinsky was asked to patticipare because oF his work wirh "The Eighr," or the Ashcan School. Although nor a member of rhat group, Dolinsky displayed his work with theirs probably because his paintings revealed their influences in palette and subject marter. His work mirrored rhe work ofthe Ashcan arrisrs in irs urban subject marter and in its character as "not an art of social commentary but one thar fek che pulse ofciry life...they [the artists] relied on rapid execution...which lends rheir 1ess,
canvasses the immediacy of spontaneous observation."3
Dolinsky painted in oils and acrylics and drew
in charcoal and ink; because he wanted to develop his talents in other media, he also experimenced wirh etching. From early in his career, Dolinsky preferred co work alone, either in a silent classroom after school or in his private scudio. This solitude enabled him to study the spiric of an individual or rhe armosphere of a landscape. "His paintings catch and express, in a portrait, the inner personality of the model or in a landscape, a mood. Each paincing has somerhing transcendent;' wrote one criaic.4 Recognized primarily as a portrair painter, Nathan Dolinsky was comfortable painring family members, children, landscapes, and even the personal events ofhis own 1ife. Ofhis art he said, "Technique, no matter how good, is not enough. You have to have
talent and imagination, and you have to be able to in the painting."s Adhering ro rhis dictum, Dolinsky's works relate simple, mome4tary joy as expressed in the faces and postures ofhis sitters. His early style ofpainting has been characcerized as casting a Victorian haze over a nineteenth-century academic style with a constant "blending and muting say someching
of all chroma and disregarding value
scales."6
His sty1e,
with cool colors and misty atmosphere, have an immediacy that recalls rhe spontaneiry of his friends among "The Eighti' especially \X/i11iam Glackens.
After Dolinsky married a beauriful young nurse named Blossom, the cwo explored Europe and the western United States, later establishing part-dme residence in Hunter. As rhey rraveled, his sryle became more refined, and his colors bolder. Moreover, his tech-
nique started to resemble that of Maxfield Parrish, who used pure colors creating a luminescence and fragility in works of art chac blend worlds of reality and fantasy. To establish compositions, Parrish used photographs ofmodels that he arranged on the canvas ro create "lines of dynamic symmetry."T Dolinsky's diptychs are similar in style although ir is unknown to what extent he used photography. Because of his association with the Armory Show, Dolinsky was asked to teach at Cooper Union in New York. He began to teach in 1913 and he srayed for six years. "This was my life," said the artist. "I was one of the youngest instructors to teach at Cooper Union..."8 During his tenure at the school, Dolinsky became a member of the Salmagundi Society, rhe oldest arrisrs' association in the Unired Srates. Membership carries presdge and honor, for affiliation is only granted
by unanimous election. Although they never had any of their own, rhe Dolinskys loved children and encouraged them in the