James N. Rosenberg

Early life and training

Rosenberg was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania on November 20, 1874. In 1879, his family moved to a building on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. As a child, he attended nearby Ethical Culture School and later became a boarding student at Gunnery Preparatory School in rural Connecticut. Both were known for liberal educational policies. He received his undergraduate education at Columbia College and upon graduating in 1895 entered Columbia Law School from which he obtained an LL.B. degree in 1898. During the summer of 1912, he attended a session of an art school in Woodstock, New York, but, as explained below, left after only two or three weeks.

Career in law

Rosenberg partnered with other Columbia Law graduates in a career that spanned nearly half a century. His specialty was the law of bankruptcy. After receiving his L.L.B. degree in 1898, Rosenberg joined the New York Bar. In 1900 he formed a law partnership with Joseph Proskauer, an attorney who had received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College in 1896 and his law degree from Columbia Law in 1899. In the new practice Rosenberg specialized in bankruptcy law. During the years Rosenberg was studying law at Columbia, the United States Congress debated and finally, in 1898, passed a new law, the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, to regulate the dealings of insolvent businesses and their creditors. The law gave federal courts jurisdiction to oversee bankruptcy proceedings and it established a new court-appointed law officer, the referee in bankruptcy to act as the court's agent. One of Rosenberg's earliest court appointments occurred in September 1900, when the New York Supreme Court appointed him receiver in a claim made by a brewing company against a sign painting firm. In June 1901, he was appointed referee in a claim against a life assurance society.

A few years later both Rosenberg and Proskauer joined the firm of James, Schell & Elkus. Although the firm continued to use the old name, both James (Edward C. James, 1841-1901) and Schell (Edward Paul Schell, 1836-1901) had by that time died. The firm's remaining partner, Abram Isaac Elkus, had graduated from Columbia Law School in 1888. In 1903 James, Schell & Elkus was named permanent counsel for a merchants' association that pooled its resources in order to take legal action against bankrupts who attempted to defraud their creditors. In that year Rosenberg was attorney for the creditors in the bankruptcy of a company that manufactured boilers and other steam appliances. His investigation showed that before the bankruptcy had been declared the president had taken a large sum of money out of the business for his personal use.

In 1912 Rosenberg and another lawyer left James, Schell & Elkus to form a partnership called Rosenberg and Levis. In announcing the new firm the two men said they would be taking over the Elkus bankruptcy department and would continue as attorneys for the merchants' association. Rosenberg's partner, Robert P. Levis (1878–1943) was a lawyer in the Elkus firm who had graduated from Columbia Law School in 1903. He was, like Rosenberg, a bankruptcy specialist who received court appointments to act as receiver of bankrupts' assets.

At this time, Rosenberg was named counsel for the receivers in a bankruptcy that was, as he later said, the biggest and best of his young career. The United States Motor Company was a large conglomerate of automobile manufacturers. It was deeply in debt and at the end of 1912 became insolvent. Early in 1913, the Maxwell Motor Company survived the breakup of the conglomerate (and would later evolve into the Chrysler Corporation). At this time, the head of the reorganization committee asked Rosenberg to replace Maxwell's retiring president, Benjamin Briscoe, move to Detroit, and manage the company. Rosenberg later said he rejected this "tempting proposal to become an industrial leader" from his conviction "that to accept would have meant farewell to the kind of life I wanted to lead."

Humanitarian

Rosenberg began working to benefit humanity while he was still an undergraduate. During those years he participated in amateur theatricals and in 1895 was a member of a group called the Don Quixote Club which gave a benefit show for New York's Hebrew Charities. In 1909 he was elected to the Hebrew Charities board of directors and continued in that role for the next decade. By 1921 he had been elected vice president of the Hebrew Charities' Desertion Bureau, an organization founded in 1905 that helped Jewish immigrant women whose husbands had deserted them.

At the age of 46, he had achieved much success in the legal profession and some recognition as professional artist and playwright. Nonetheless, at the request of the banker, Felix M. Warburg, he became a member of the Joint Distribution Committee, of which Warburg was a principal leader, and, as its European director, took charge of efforts to help the hundreds of thousands of Jews who had become destitute during the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Rosenberg agreed to devote a year of full-time work on the project and to contribute as much time as he could after returning to his normal life. At first, Rosenberg coordinated with the American Relief Administration, headed by Herbert Hoover, and later directed a separate organization, the American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation, known as Agro-Joint. By means of this organization and a subsidiary called the American Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in Russia, Rosenberg worked within the Soviet political system to help direct $8,000,000 of donated aid in order to resettle some 300,000 displaced Jews from Russian ghettos into farms, mainly in the Crimea. During a decade and a half the operation was a qualified success. Many many urban dwellers were able to transition to factory farming but others were at best reluctant to adopt the new way of life; the Soviet government gave both funds and cooperation, but was unwilling to cede necessary authority to the project. Agro-Joint ended tragically after the Soviets withdrew support in 1939 and the subsequent Nazi invasion resulted in the eastward displacement of most settlers and the extermination of the rest.

During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Rosenberg was an energetic fundraiser for charitable causes. He was elected vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, headed fundraising drives in New York City, and took the lead in the city's fundraising for the Allied Jewish Campaign. In the early 1930s he became alarmed at the rise of Nazism. He participated in the JDC's German Relief Campaign and, calling the treatment of Jews an "unspeakable catastrophe," urged influential German Jews to take antisemitic outrages seriously. On reading horrible antisemitic slanders in German newspapers he approached Jewish leaders in Berlin asking them to do everything they could to stop "the spreading of such poison." Writing in 1935, he said, "A few of them assured me that such efforts were being attempted. But for the most part, the thing was looked on as a passing phase which would fall of its own weight." In 1939 he helped found an umbrella organization via the merger of the Joint Distribution Committee with two other philanthropic groups. Called, United Jewish Appeal, its immediate objective was support of Jews who escaped Germany and Nazi-held territories. In 1940, after the United States and other industrialized democracies refused to admit more than small numbers of Jewish refugees, Rosenberg led a program to resettle Jews in the one country that declared it would welcome large numbers of them. This was the Dominican Republic, then ruled by a vicious dictator, Rafael Trujillo, and the program, called the Sosua Settlement, was a direct descendant of the Crimean settlement effort. The Nazi regime was at first amenable to Jewish emigration, but war conditions quickly made mass action impossible as travel through Europe and across the Atlantic became increasingly perilous. In the end, relatively few settlers made the journey and, as in the Crimea, some of them were reluctant to take up farming.

Artist

Rosenberg started to draw when still a child and began painting as a hobby when he was in his thirties. In 1910, he signed up for a summer session of art study in Woodstock, New York, but left after two or three weeks when it became obvious to him that the students were all trying to copy the instructor. He later said he preferred being Rosenberg to being a parrot. In 1911, he told an interviewer that he made sketches when he traveled, both on his daily commute from Far Rockaway to Manhattan and back and on his trips for vacations or business meetings. In 1921, he told another interviewer that although he was a professional artist, he did not exhibit in commercial galleries for the money he could earn from sales but rather "for the fun of it," and in 1928 he added, "I certainly want people to buy [my paintings]."

In 1911, he achieved a feat that was out of reach for most beginning artists when Louis Katz gave him a solo exhibition at his eponymous commercial art gallery on West 74th Street in Manhattan. An equally unlikely outcome was a long and appreciative review of this exhibition in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Crediting Rosenberg with a "poetic sense," the paper's critic said the 40 pastels in the show were "sensitive and quietly impressive rather than bold and big in style, color," and added, "the subtle handling of themes are important points in the work." This critic went on to give favorable appraisals of many works by name, writing, for example, that "'Jamaica Bay, Emerald and Mauve,' shows a remarkable scenic effect, with its green-shot water and mauve areas. There are some evening effects with lights of big hotels along the shore, piercing the remembrance of sunset in the sky." A critic for the New York Times was also impressed by the show, saying the pastels were "refined in color and show[ed] a vision sensitive to beauty." Of two of them, this critic wrote, "'Wet Street,' is a poetic transcription of a scene many times noted by the artists of the city, and 'Steam and Mist' is another successful version of the mysterious and exquisite effects with which New York clothes her medley of architecture." In 1913, Rosenberg received a second solo exhibition of pastels, this time at the Arlington Art Galleries in Brooklyn, and, once again, the works displayed received favorable critical notice. One critic praised a "refinement and practiced hand" and another said the pictures had "refined color and much feeling for nature." A third critic was almost effusive, writing, "Many men aim at poetry through the medium of pictorial art, but it is not often they achieve the lyric bays so truly as this painter has done in this little group of pastels." In 1916, he contributed a painting to the annual exhibition of the New York Water Color Club. In 1917, he exhibited in the first group exhibition held by the Society of Independent Artists. The following year he showed pastels at the Anderson Galleries with all proceeds from sales to be donated to the Red Cross. The show included landscapes and still lifes. A critic for the New York Tribune praised one of the former, "Scattering Clouds," as a "strong piece of work" revealing "deep blue mountains" against an "exquisite turquoise sky." In 1921, he showed with Marsden Hartley at the Anderson Galleries. The following year Rosenberg helped found a gallery called The New Gallery (and was called one of the gallery's "leading spirits and godfather"). The gallery was financed in part by an innovative scheme, the New Gallery Club, begun in February 1923. The club supported the gallery through its membership fees and it raised funds and publicized exhibitions by means of entertainments, teas, and receptions. Many club members were amateur artists whose work the gallery showed in special exhibitions. In 1924, Rosenberg showed three paintings in a group exhibition at the gallery. Four years later, he held a solo exhibition of Adirondack Mountain landscapes at the Erich Galleries. At that time he told an interviewer that he painted simply for the joy of it. He said, "I have no suppressed longing to live in the South Seas and do nothing but paint. And I have no 'message' to give the world. I happen to be very fond of the Adirondacks, and my summer home is located among them." His painting, "Adirondack Cloudburst," of 1946 (shown at right) is one of many mountain landscapes he made in the course of his career. In 1928, he contributed two paintings to a group exhibition of the Salons of America at the Anderson Galleries. In 1929, Rosenberg departed from the style of painting and subject matter of his earlier work when he produced what turned out to be his best-known piece, a lithograph called "Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath), showing the October 29, 1929, Wall Street Crash as a horrific scene of destruction. On January 12, 1930, the New York Times put a reproduction of the lithograph on the front page of its Sunday magazine. "Dies Irae" is shown at left.

Artistic style and critical reception

Rosenberg's art is representational. Called a "romantic realist," he adopted Paul Cézanne as his model and explicitly rejected the New York art world's shift toward abstraction in the late 1940s. In a 1959 interview he acknowledged that his style was no longer fashionable and said he was content to serve the needs of his art in his own way. More than that, he disdained the "contemporary avalanches of abstract paintings" and said abstract artists had "nothing new to communicate." He made pastels and oils throughout his career. Beginning in the 1920s he made lithographs and late in his career he made at least one montage. He made landscapes, particularly of scenes from the Adirondack Mountains, where he owned extensive property, but also of scenes from places where he traveled on vacation or business. These paintings were said to show a strong feeling for the natural environment and were seen as refined rather than exuberant. He made cityscapes. One example of the latter is an oil called "New York in Snow," shown at right. And he chose current events as his subjects. These include celebrations, such as an early pastel, "Victory Parade—Return of the 27th Division, AEF, 1919" and a late pastel, "March Parade of Colonel John B. Glenn (New York City, March 1, 1962)," but they also include the prints he made showing tragic events, both real (such as the 1929 stock market crash) and imaginary such as the devastation that would be caused by atomic warfare). He preferred to paint in a studio using sketches made outdoors. "I see too much when I try to paint from the subject itself," he once said.

Writer

The prep school that Rosenberg attended prided itself on the strength of its English Language and Literature courses and, after graduating from it, he considered whether he might become a man of letters. During his years as an undergraduate at Columbia College, he wrote poetry and performed in a theater group called the Don Quixote Club. He later reported that one of his professors, the critic and poet, George Edward Woodberry, helped to foster this ambition. As a senior in 1895, he helped found and edit a Columbia literary magazine called "The Morningside."

Poetry

In 1897, Rosenberg co-edited a compilation of poetry by Columbia University students called Columbia Verse (New York, W.B. Harison). The other editor was his fellow student and later law partner, Joseph M. Proskauer. Rosenberg contributed poems called "Ah, She Lurks," "Let Us Love and Laugh To-day," "Man," "God," "Darkness," "Fragment," and "The Nineteenth Psalm." In 1900 he contributed poems to an alumni-authors issue of the Columbia Literary Monthly. In 1926 he wrote a long poem about antisemitism in Europe called "Roman Holiday: Conversation Piece," which was not published until 1947 (New York, T. Yoseloff). His play, Punchinello (New York, Mitchell Kennerley, 1923) was written in free verse.

Theater

Having already established himself as lawyer, philanthropist, and artist, Rosenberg made a name for himself as dramatist with the publication, in 1917, of a play, "The Return to Mutton," and its performance in Manhattan the following year. One critic said the play was witty and clever, having a predictable plot, but interesting situation and characters. Another dismissed its publication as a waste of paper. A Manhattan repertoire company, the Henderson Players, considered the play to be one of its most popular productions during the spring season of 1918. In 1919, Rosenberg joined the advisory group of the Theatre Guild and a few years later published another play, "Punchinello, a Ballet," which received positive reviews from book critics but which does not appear in databases of plays that were produced at that time. One critic called it "swift, bright, and clever," and another said "reading it is an unqualified delight." The play's publisher, Mitchell Kennerley was a gallery owner as well as editor and publisher. President of Anderson Galleries, from 1916 to 1929, he had shown Rosenberg's works along with Marsden Hartley's in a 1921 exhibition. The name, Punchinello, was a variant of Punch from the Punch and Judy puppet shows.

In 1927 Rosenberg's play, Wall Street; A Romantic Melodrama, was performed in the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Starring Arthur Hohl, it portrayed the downfall of fast-rising and double-dealing stockbrokers and the inevitable losses suffered by their customers. Critics gave it mixed reviews, one summarizing the plot as, "a group of soulless, money mad, soul withered human animals deliberately try[ing] to beat the oldest and most obvious of natural laws and suffer[ing] the prescribed penalty."

Law

Rosenberg wrote legal treatises and articles in law journals on bankruptcy and resulting corporate reorganizations. He also wrote on the legal aspects of his humanitarian concerns. The articles appeared mainly in the Columbia Law Review. His book on reorganization is Corporate Reorganization and the Federal Court, written with Robert T Swaine and Roberts Walker (New York, Baker, Voorhis & Co., 1924).

Humanitarianism

Publications containing interviews, lectures, and newspaper articles flowed from Rosenberg's extensive work to achieve humanitarian goals. Throughout his adult life he wrote articles, books, and opinion pieces aimed at protecting freedom of speech, ending the persecution of minority communities, aiding refugees, mitigating conflict among nations, and preventing the recurrence of genocide. In 1918, he wrote a treatise on President Wilson's proposals for a world court and in 1925 wrote two articles on strengthening the world court that had been set up by the League of Nations, one in the Columbia Law Review and the other in The Nation. In 1938 he wrote an article on freedom of speech in Public Opinion Quarterley. In 1947, he wrote a short work on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1928, he wrote Censorship in the United States (New York, Court Press, 1928).

Art

From 1920 to 1922, Rosenberg spent a brief time as an art critic, writing articles for the profusely illustrated American edition of the British periodical, International Studio. In the issue for December 1920, he reviewed a large exhibition put on by the Society of American Artists. He thought much of the work was complacent and imitative, but praised Rockwell Kent for his "inviolability of self" in being sensitive to the work of others, but nonetheless completely himself. March 1921 he wrote an appreciation of Edgar Degas in which he said Degas was an aristocrat who saw the world clearly enough to depict it without sentimentality or prejudice. In April 1921, he reviewed the large exhibitions of the National Academy of Design and Society of Independent Artists of that season, deploring widespread imitation of outmoded European styles on the one hand and praising instances of American originality on the other. In the issue of May 1921, he gave a glowing review to a book called Art and I by C. Lewis Hind (New York, John Lane & Co. 1921). In the issue for August of that year he wrote an ironic comparison of engraved stock certificates versus artists' etchings from a collector's point of view. Like all artists, Rosenberg was given credit as author of art exhibition catalogs for the solo shows in which he participated as well as those in which he was a major participant. Some of Rosenberg's prints were also reproduced in a book called 50 lithographs [by] James N. Rosenberg (New York, H.N. Abrams, 1964).

Other writings

Rosenberg wrote two memoirs and his son-in-law, Maxwell Geismar, edited a compilation of his papers. On the Steppes (New York, London, A.A. Knopf, 1927) recorded his experiences in Eastern Europe and, in particular, Soviet Russia, during the time he spent there as head of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Commission for Europe and as president of the American Society for Jewish farm settlements in Russia. A Painter's Self-Portrait (New York : Crown Publishers, 1958) has a great number of reproductions of his work but gives his life story and is a more balanced account than the title suggests. Unfinished Business (Mamaroneck, Vincent Marasia Press, 1967) is a selection from Rosenberg's personal archives. Like Painter's Self-Portrait it includes many reproductions artworks and recounts his life story.

Personal life and family

Rosenberg was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania on November 20, 1874. His father was Henry Rosenberg (born in Bavaria in 1846, died in New York in 1927). During Rosenberg's early childhood his father was an officer with a Pittsburgh insurance company, the Modern Life and Improvement Trust Company. In 1879 the family moved to Manhattan where Henry Rosenberg joined his brothers-in-law, Max and William Naumburg, in a wholesale clothing business called M & W Naumburg. Rosenberg's mother was Henrietta Naumburg Rosenberg (born in 1850 in Maryland, died in 1944 in Manhattan). He had two sisters, Minnie, born in 1876, who did not marry and who lived with her parents and then with her brother, and Florence (1889-1918), who married a physician, Morton E. Hart, and lived in California.

In 1905, Rosenberg married Bessie Herman (1875–1979). She was born in Baltimore to Joseph M. Herman (1851-1920), a successful Boston shoe manufacturer, and Hennie (Adler) Herman (1862–1950). The Rosenbergs had two daughters and a son. The elder daughter was Elizabeth Rosenberg Zetzel (1907-1970) who served as a Major in the British Army during World War II and who subsequently became a well-known psychiatrist and early advocate for the use of psychiatric drugs in combination with psychotherapy rather than psychotherapy alone. The younger daughter, Anne (1909–2011) was an editor and author. She is best known for being the supportive wife of Maxwell Geismar (1909–1979). He was a left-leaning literary historian and book critic who became famous for his attack on the literary establishment for its adulation of the works of Henry James. He was also editor of Rosenberg's last publication, Unfinished Business: James N. Rosenberg Papers (Marasia Press, 1967). Rosenberg's son, Robert Rosenberg (1922-2014), was a stockbroker who served as a U.S. Army Air Force pilot during World War II.

Rosenberg's Naumburg relatives were notable for their civic engagement, for their patronage of art and music, and for the extent of their philanthropy. Rosenberg's uncle Max had a daughter, Alice (1881–1959), who, in 1903, married his classmate and law partner, Joseph Proskauer. Alice Naumburg Proskauer became well known in New York as an urban planning specialist, advocate for fair treatment of tenants, and proponent of affordable housing. She was a director of the New York Urban League and of the New York City Housing Corporation. She headed the Housing Section of New York's Welfare Council and played a major role in the construction of the Sunnyside Gardens housing development in Queens.