National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Spirit of War
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

lower left: J.F. Cropsey 1851

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Sale of Cropsey's work, New York, April 1856;[1] John Rutherford, New Jersey;[2] sold by May 1856 to Joseph Harrison, Jr. [1810-1874], Philadelphia; by inheritance to his wife, Sarah Poulterer Harrison [1817-1906], Philadelphia; her estate; (her estate sale, M. Thomas & Sons at Philadelphia Art Galleries, 12 March 1912 [postponed from 26 February], no. 8); Thomas E. Kinsey, Philadelphia.[3] Joseph T. Kinsley, Philadelphia, by April 1915; (sale, Hiram Parke New Galleries, New York, 15-16 March 1916, 2nd day, no. 175);[4] (J.G. Leroy, agent). (sale, Philadelphia Art Galleries, 7 February 1917, no. 1485).[5] (sale, Philadelphia Art Galleries, 29 May 1917, no. 767).[6] Sarah Clark Goodman, New York and Newport; (her sale, Plaza Art Rooms, Inc., New York, 13-15 November 1919, 3rd day, no. 499);[7] Herbert Kaufman. Adele Gardiner, Tarrytown, New York, 1929;[8] private collection, from 1929; acquired 1977 by (Vose Galleries, Boston); purchased 23 February 1978 by NGA.

[1] "Cropsey sale," Statten Islander, 12 April 1856.

[2] This was not the first painting by Cropsey to be purchased by Rutherford. Tuckerman, Book 1867, 535 lists a Jedburgh Abbey, painted by Cropsey in Rome, in the collection of "John Rutherford, Esq., of New Jersey."

[3] An annotated copy of the 1912 sale catalogue gives the name of the buyer of the Cropsey as Thomas E. Kingsley, as does a 13 March 1912 newspaper article from The North American inserted inside the cover of this copy of the catalogue. A search of Philadelphia city directories and the 1910 U.S. census for Philadelphia finds no Thomas Kingsley, but instead Thomas E. Kinsey, a superintendent with the Pullman Company. The same article indicates that he purchased "for his private collection" three paintings at the sale. Two of these paintings are indeed annotated in the sale catalogue with his name; however, the third is annotated with the name of Joseph T. Kinsley (see note 4).

[4] There was a 1915 sale in Philadelphia (14-16 April) of over 200 paintings in Joseph T. Kinsley's collection. The Spirit of War was no. 66 in this sale, but apparently it did not sell. The 1916 sale catalogue is titled Illustrated Catalogue of Valuable Paintings by Foreign and American Artists Belonging to Mr. Joseph T. Kinsley, Philadelphia...and Mr. William Hogencamp...Jersey City, N.J.. According to Philadelphia city directories from 1911 to 1916, Joseph T. Kinsley was the president and general manager of the Pennsylvania Taximeter & Cab Co. and the Bellevue-Stratford Garage, as well as a plumber, his occupation as given in the 1910 census for Philadelphia. The 1916 sale included over 100 paintings from his collection.

[5] Dr. Kenneth W. Maddox found the painting listed in this sale, which included objects from the estates of Charles I. Craigen of Philadelphia and Palm Beach, and Mrs. Louisa S. Clarke of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The catalogue does not identify the owner of individual lots.

[6] The reference to this sale in the 1917 American Art Annual describes it as "107 water colors and paintings belonging to the estates of Harriet W. Norriss, G. Hudson Mackuen, and several other estates." A copy of the catalogue has not yet been located.

[7] The 1919 sale was "The Sarah Clark Goodman Sale." This is the only documentation thus far of her ownership. The New York Times obituary notice of 13 April 1919 identifies Mrs. Goodman as the wife of the Rev. Frederic W. Goodman and "the inventor of the 'vibratone piano'."

[8] A letter of 26 February 1981 from Robert C. Vose, Jr. (in NGA curatorial files), states: "Apparently, this Gardiner also built a house in the Adirondacks, which was eventually purchased by the man from whom we got the Cropsey. He still wishes to be anonymous. Our source found the painting face to the wall in the barn."

Exhibition History

1852
Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1852, no. 48.
1853
The Washington Exhibition in Aid of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts, American Art-Union Gallery, New York, 1853, no. 58.
1854
Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1854, no. 326.
1855
Boston Atheneum, 1855, no cat.
1856
Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1856, no. 308; Fall 1856, no. 99.
1857
Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1857, no. 250.
1990
Loan for display with permanent collection, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1990.
1994
Jasper Francis Cropsey's "The Spirit of War" and "The Spirit of Peace", National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1994-1995, brochure, color repro. (detail on cover; inside cover).
1995
Focus Exhibition, The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, 1995, no cat.
2000
Rave Reviews: American Art and Its Critics, 1826-1925, National Academy of Design, New York; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa; Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2000-2001, no. 19, repro. (shown only in New York).

Bibliography

1851
"Fine Arts." Home Journal 2 (27 December 1851): 5.
1851
"Fine Arts." Literary World (13 December 1851): 471.
1851
"The Chronicle: Art and Artists in America." Bulletin of the American Art-Union (1 December 1851): 149.
1852
"Fine Arts." Home Journal 2 (8 May 1852): 6, 7.
1852
"Fine Arts." New York Herald (7 February 1852).
1852
"Fine Arts." New York Tribune (24 April 1852): 5.
1852
"Fine Arts: The National Academy of Design." The Albion 2 (24 April/8 May 1852): 201.
1855
The Crayon (11 July 1855): 24.
1856
["Cropsey sale."] Statten Islander (12 April 1856).
1856
Home Journal 1 (26 January 1856): 1-4.
1867
Tuckerman 1867, 535-536.
1879
Sheldon, George William. American Painters. New York, 1879.
1968
Bermingham, Peter. Jasper F. Cropsey: A Retrospective View of America's Painter of Autumn. Exh. cat. University of Maryland, College Park, 1968: 13.
1970
Talbot, William S. Jasper F. Cropsey 1823-1900. Exh. cat. National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., 1970: 28-29.
1977
Talbot, William S. Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900. New York, 1977: 106-111, 365-367.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 141, repro.
1980
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 15, 19, no. 29, color repro.
1981
Williams 1981, 114-115, repro. 115.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 547, no. 823, color repro.
1987
Foshay, Ella M., and Barbara Finney. Jasper F. Cropsey, Artist and Architect. Exh. cat. New-York Historical Society, New York, 1987: 25.
1988
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 11, 18, 22, 110, no. 32, color repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 293, color repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 154, repro.
1993
Miller, Angela. The Empire of the Eye: Landscape Representation and American Cultural Politics, 1825-1875. Ithaca, New York, 1993: 68-69, 107, 122-123, 125.
1994
Kelly, Franklin. "American Landscape Pairs of the 1850s." Antiques 146 (November 1994): 650-657.
1994
Kelly, Franklin. Jasper Francis Cropsey: The Spirit of War and the Spirit of Peace. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1994: fig. 1.
1994
Kelly, Franklin. Thomas Cole's Paintings of Eden. Exh. cat. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 1994: 45, fig. 45.
1996
Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 110-114, color repro.

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