The Art Students League of New York
215 West 57th St.
Architect: Henry Hardenbergh
Year built: 1892
NEW YORK—Originally the American Fine Arts Society, the Art Students League of New York was constructed in 1892 in the French Renaissance style, adapted from a 16th century hunting lodge in Fontainebleau, France, by American architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. Hardenbergh also designed the Plaza Hotel, The Dakota Apartments, and the Western Union Telegraph Building at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1968.
The understated elegance of the building reflects a restrained expression of the Renaissance Revival popular at the time. A small watchful owl sculpture peers down on passersby from the second floor window ledge; the four-story building has a stone façade, double-arched windows on the second floor, and a balustrade in relief at the top floor beneath a tiled mansard roof.
The league was founded by artists, for artists. The Art Students League of New York has been host to some of America’s foremost painters and sculptors. Early instructors included Thomas Eakins, Frank Duveneck, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Childe Hassam. Students at the league have included George Bellows, Norman Rockwell, Al Hirschfeld, and Maurice Sendak. The original American Fine Arts Society was incorporated in 1889 and included The New York Architecture League, the Society of American Artists, and the Art Students League. Each originally had space in the building but now the Art Students League is the only tenant.
The Art Students League offers month-long courses at both the Manhattan location and at its Vytlacil Campus in Rockland County.
