Look Up: The School Where Maurice Sendak Honed His Skills

Image via Complex Original

The American Fine Arts Building at 215 West 57th Street opened in the fall of 1892 to serve as home to the Art Students League, the Architecture League, and the Society of American Artists. By 1927, the Architecture League had established a new headquarters; by 1941 ,the Art Student League was the sole remaining member of the building, and bought out the other organizations' shares.

The Art Students League was originally a splinter group of the National Academy, which was an offshoot of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. It would seem that each generation found their elders to be too conservative and inflexible, so they opted to blaze their own path rather than suffering the restrictive instruction. It was in 1875 when students of the National Academy, having heard that drawing from life might be cancelled, formed the autonomous organization. 

The League continues to instruct in the same atelier model, where each studio is run independently and students are free to choose which instructors they follow. Additionally, to maintain its utopian vision, the league continues to admit any and all interested persons, regardless of technical ability. Countless notable American artists have passed through its doors including, Georgia O’Keefe, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Maurice Sendak.

The building, which bears the name of the League in gold lettering above the door, was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, best known for designing the Plaza Hotel. Resembling a French Renaissance townhouse, the stone façade is gracefully balanced with ornately adorned windows and arches toward the center, and small, plain windows to the sides.

Engravings above the third-floor central windows acknowledge the three original occupants of the building. The large arched windows on the second floor, as well as the arched entranceway, are flanked by delicate ornamental spindles whose capitals have small busts engraved in them.

The otherwise simple side windows are capped with amazingly detailed motifs that include tiny figures and heads. A band of urns caps the cornice above the third floor at the roofline. Each is adorned with a small cherub at the base. 

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1968, and was listed with the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

One of the cherubs that adorns the band of urns.

One of the ornate spindles that flank the entranceway.