Frank Bellew - Friendships

Friendships

Bellew knew and socialized with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who visited Bellew at his studio on Broadway in New York City.

Thoreau and Bellew discussed philosophical matters, as Thoreau recorded in his Journals on October 19, 1855:

Talking with Bellew this evening about Fourierism and communities, I said that I suspected any enterprise in which two were engaged together. "But," said he, "it is difficult to make a stick stand unless you slant two or more against it." "Oh, no," answered I, "you may split its lower end into three, or drive it single into the ground, which is the best way; but most men, when they start on a new enterprise, not only figuratively, but really, pull up stakes. When the sticks prop one another, none, or only one, stands erect."

Bellew knew Thomas Nast from, at the very least, shared visits to Charles Pfaff's beer cellar in lower Manhattan, and found him "amusing." It's also quite likely the two knew each other because they were two of the most prolific artists creating illustrations for Harper's Weekly.