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The Story of Aaron Ashley
Aaron Ashley, Inc, the well-known publisher of
high-quality fine art reproductions, was founded
in New York in 1928 by two cousins from
Worcester, Mass.
The following year, just as the depression was
beginning, Aaron Ginsburg, another Worcester
native, joined his boyhood friend, Ashley Leavitt,
as a partner in the firm, replacing the other
cousin. (It would be almost thirty years before
Aaron Ginsburg, yielding to the pestering of his
two children, arranged with Leavitt for his first
name to join his partner’s in the firm’s title,
replacing that of Leavitt’s cousin David.)
In their first years, like many American dealers
in reproductions, the partners focused on
importing prints from Europe, primarily French
landscape etchings. The firm published its first
reproduction, “Miss Pierce,” a portrait by John
Singleton Copley from the Worcester Museum,
in 1932. In the following years they continued
to publish small numbers of reproductions,
mainly old masters, but imported prints, often
extra stock from German and English publishers,
remained the bulk of their business.
In 1939 Aaron Ashley published a reproduction
of its first impressionist work, Renoir’s Luncheon
of the Boating Party.” It was joined after World
War II by a major selection of impressionist
subjects, which were just beginning to find
popular acceptance in the United States.
Publishing was suspended during the war due
to restrictions on paper, but when materials
became available in 1946 Aaron Ashley began
an ambitious program that would take it within
a decade to the top rank of American art
publishers.
In 1953, Phillip D. Ginsburg, a nephew of Aaron
Ginsburg, joined the management of Aaron
Ashley, retiring only with the sale of the firm to
Bentley Publishing Group.
In the following years, the three principals
broadened Aaron Ashley’s line to include folk
art, floral and animal prints, still lifes, Victorian
subjects, English hunting and sporting prints,
and a wide variety of other subjects. The most
complete collection of the bird paintings of
John James Audubon, reproduced from the
collections of the National Gallery of Art and
the Audubon Society itself, became an
outstanding feature of Aaron Ashley’s offerings.
Beginning in the 1950’s, the watercolor city
scenes of John Haymson were the first of what
was to become a major slate of contemporary
artists. The Native American and Southwestern
subjects of Ted DeGrazia, Carolyn Blish’s beach
scenes, and the coastal views of Jacqueline
Penney were among the major additions to
the Aaron Ashley line in the following years.
In the early 1960’s, the line was expanded with
the work of Western American artists like
Frederick Remington and Charles Russell, and
landscape painters include Albert Bierstadt,
Thomas Moran, and the Hudson River school
artists, Jasper Cropsey and Asher B. Durand. By
the end of the decade, Aaron Ashley ceased
importing prints to concentrate entirely on its
own publications. Phillip Ginsburg became the
chief executive and managing partner of
Aaron Ashley,expanding the firm’s catalog to
a total of 2,500 subjects.
In the late 1970’s, the first of what would
become a wide range of Asian subjects were
added, including 17th and 18th century
Japanese and Chinese portraits and
landscapes from the Freer Gallery in
Washington (later the Freer Sackler Gallery).
After a lengthy retirement, Aaron Ginsburg
passed away in 1977. Ashley Leavitt passed
away in 1990.
An already substantial offering of American folk
subjects was expanded in the 1990’s when
Aaron Ashley incorporated the line of Hedgerow
House. Mr. Ginsburg negotiated the sale of the
firm to the Bentley Publishing Group at the end
of 2000. |
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