Mary Quinn Sullivan - Education, Teaching and Marriage

Education, Teaching and Marriage

Sullivan attended public schools in Indianapolis including the Shortridge High School, and in 1899 moved to New York to study art at the Pratt Institute. In 1901 she was hired as an art teacher in the Queens, NY school system. The NY Board of Education sent her abroad to observe the curriculum of art schools in England, Scotland, and Germany. She traveled to France and Italy during this trip and there she was exposed to the modern art movements of the time (Impressionism and Post-Impressionism). Sullivan rented a room in the Brooklyn Heights home of Theodor Dreier during the early 20th c. and was a friend of Katherine Dreier - the two studied old masters in Europe together in 1902-1903 and Sullivan is listed as a member of the Société Anonyme (art) in Dreier's archives.

In 1909 Sullivan became the head of the art department at the DeWitt Clinton High School and supervised the drawing curriculum in New York City elementary schools in addition to serving as secretary of the New York High School Teacher's Association. In 1910 she resigned her many posts to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, taking classes from critic/artist Roger Fry. Upon her return she accepted a position at Pratt as an instructor of design and household arts and sciences, authoring a textbook entitled "Planning and Furnishing the Home: Practical and Economical Suggestions for the Homemaker".

She married Cornelius J. Sullivan in 1917; he was a prominent lawyer who specialized in managing large trusts and divorce proceedings for the wealthy, was a member of the New York Board of Education, and he was a friend of art and manuscript collector John Quinn (collector) - both he and this titan of the art world shared an enthusiasm for collecting in addition to identifying as "Irish patriots." C. J. Sullivan was a collector of rare books and manuscripts, antiques and art. Mary and Cornelius established a home in the Hell's Gate area of Astoria, Queens (the neighborhood is now occupied by the Con Ed plant in Queens) and entertained artists, writers, and politicians. Here they began a spectacular collection of European and American art and American and Irish antiques which included Modigliani's Sculptured Head of a Woman (acquired from Leopold Zborowski), Cézanne's Madame Cézanne, a Hepplewhite desk which once belonged to Degas, Rouault's Crucifixion, Mlle. Ravoux by Van Gogh, and The New Novel by Winslow Homer, to name but a few. The two often spent summers in Ireland, and maintained a second home on Block Island, RI.

After her marriage, Sullivan was a strong supporter of many philanthropic causes. She served as the president of the Needle and Bobbin Club in New York City, a ladies' group which sold lacework for charity (most notably works by women in poorhouses at Blackwell's Island) and she herself gave lectures about the history of lacework on behalf of the club and supported causes like the 'Handwork Centre' at 511 Madison Avenue that sold toys made by the elderly, infirm, and unemployed. Sullivan also organized a group of patrons of the Indianapolis Museum of Art who called themselves the Gamboliers; these patrons donated modest sums toward the purchase of works chosen by Sullivan which were then given in the group's name. As late as 1921, Sullivan was noted to be the secretary and chairman of the New York Society of Occupation Therapy, which operated a summer program at Byrdcliffe Colony in Woodstock, NY that taught the basics of art and applied arts instruction to hospital aides and nurses.