National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Miss Van Alen
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Provenance

Recorded as from Kinderhook, New York.[1] Mr. Van Tassel, Muitzeskill, Rensselaer County, New York. (Edith Gregor Halpert, The Downtown Gallery, New York, 1932-1947), by whom sold in 1947 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1956.

[1] The pamphlet accompanying the 1933 Downtown Gallery exhibition American Ancestors states that this portrait was found in Kinderhook, New York. Downtown Gallery records on microfilm at the Archives of American Art indicate, however, that the portrait was purchased in Ridgefield, Connecticut. They record that the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center [Williamsburg, Virginia] Miss Van Alen was found in Ridgefield but "purchased formerly by H. in Kinderhook, New York, where the family resided." Mrs. Holger Cahill, the former owner of the AARFAC portrait, thinks both portraits were bought in Kinderhook by Edith Halpert of the Downtown Gallery from descendants of the Van Alen family, or a dealer in the area (letter of 31 June 1974 to Barbara Luck, curator, AARFAC, copy in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1933
American Ancestors, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1933, no. 2, cover.
1935
American Painting and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1935, no. 11.
1935
Exhibition of American Folk Art and Colonial Furniture, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1935, no cat.
1937
Children in American Folk Art, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1937, no. 53.
1937
Problems of Portraiture, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1937, no. 1.
1938
American Folk Art, Phillips Gallery Studio House, Washington, 1938. [exh. recorded in the Downtown Gallery Papers (AAA)].
1938
Americans at Home, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1938, no. 43.
1938
Trois siècles d'art Etats-Unis, Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1938, no. 246.
1940
Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 174.
1943
American Primitive Painting of Four Centuries, The Arts Club of Chicago, 1943, no. 3.
1943
Grand Rapids (Michigan) Art Gallery, 1943 [exh. recorded in the Downtown Gallery Papers, Archives of American Art].
1947
Early American Portraits, Newark Museum, New Jersey, 1947, no cat.
1954
American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part I, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1954, no. 16.
1955
American Primitive Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955 (replaced another painting and shown about one week).
1956
American Primitive Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1956, no. 32.
1957
American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part II, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957.
1958
American Folk Art. Part of American Art. Four Exhibitions, Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, Belgium, 1958, no. 44, 35, as Attributed to Pieter Vanderlyn.
1967
Merchants and Planters of the Upper Hudson Valley 1700-1750, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg; Albany Institute of History and Art; Museum of American Folk Art and New-York Historical Soc., New York, 1967, unnumbered brochure.
1968
The American Primitive Paintings Exhibit, organized by the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California, for de Saisset Art Gallery, University of Santa Clara, 1968.

Bibliography

1933
"Fame at Last for Vanderlyn's `Grand Dad'." Art Digest 8 (15 October): 16.
1939
Barr, Alfred H., Jr., and Holger Cahill. Art in America: A Complete Survey. 4th ed. New York, 1939 (originally published as Art in America from 1600-1865. Chicago, 1934): 12-13.
1943
Possibly in Exh. Series American Heritage, Grand Rapids Art Gallery, Michigan, 1943, [Downtown Gallery Papers (AAA) and/or Grand Rapids Gallery Papers].
1950
Getty, Innes. "Van Alen Genealogy." New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 81 and 82, New York, 1950-1951.
1959
Belknap, Waldron Phoenix. American Colonial Painting: Materials for a History. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959: pl. 74, no. 1.
1969
Black, Mary C. "The Gansevoort Limner." Antiques 96 (November 1969): 738, 742-743.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 152, repro., as by Unknown American.
1971
Black, Mary C. "Pieter Vanderlyn and Other Limners of the Upper Hudson." In American Painting to 1776: A Reappraisal. Edited by Ian M. G. Quimby. Charlottesville, Va., 1971: 234.
1977
Piwonka, Ruth, and Roderic H. Blackburn. A Visible Heritage, Columbia County, New York: A History in Art and Architecture. Kinderhook, New York, 1977: 12-13.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 300, repro., as by Unknown American.
1992
Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 145-146, repro. 147.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 186, repro.

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