In the Land of Promise, Castle Garden

1884

Charles Frederic Ulrich

Painter, American, 1858 - 1908

About two dozen men, women, children, and a baby sit in rows of wooden benches or on traveling trunks in this horizontal painting. Their skin is mostly pale with some ranging more toward pink and others toward tan. A woman nursing a baby sits in the center of the composition. Her blond hair is pulled back, and she wears a white blouse under a red vest and a long black skirt. Her shirt is pulled down to expose one breast, and the feeding baby wears a white bonnet and clothing, and is wrapped in a gray-patterned blanket. The woman sits on a wooden trunk in front of a young girl, who sits on a second chest just behind her and to our left. This girl has strawberry blond hair held back under a black headband, and she wears a blue shawl over a brick-red dress. Three silver pans, a silver jug, a glass bottle, and tin cup sit next to her trunk. She leans forward and looks intently off to our left. A man with a red beard wears glasses, a brown suit, and a flat-topped straw hat sits farther back in the room on the far side of bulging sacks and more trunks. He looks into the distance off to our right. Three men wearing black suits and two wearing black bowler hats sit facing each other just over this man’s shoulder. In the right two-thirds of the painting, more men wear fedoras, bowler hats, or brimless caps. Their clothing ranges from vests over button-down shirts to suits and ties. Some wear overcoats, and some are bearded. One man wears a military-style hat, a double-breasted black coat, and smokes a pipe with a white bowl. He looks toward the nursing woman, as does a standing man farther in the room. The men sit alone or chat in groups of two or three, and one sleeps, propped up against a fabric bag. A few more women are among the group, including one older woman who wears a yellow scarf tied over her head to the left. A sign hanging on a column behind the nursing woman begins with the text, “Emigrant Landing Depot” over columns of fine print. The walls of the room are mottled fog and cream white, and one visible window is small within the thick wall. The floor is wooden planks and there is a brown stain near the lower right corner.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Castle Garden in New York City was the country’s first immigration station and processed a large refugee population in the late 19th century. Here, people from different countries talk, rest, and pass the time waiting for inspection and registration.

Four figures draw our attention. In the center, a mother nurses her baby — a trunk label suggests they may be from Sweden. A red-haired girl sits just behind them, and a uniformed man smokes a pipe to the right.

Critics of the time noted the irony of the painting’s title given the uncertain futures of many immigrants. In 1882, the federal government had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first law limiting the number and nationality of people allowed into this country.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 65

Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

Article:  Ten Artworks to Understand Early United States History

From the Native peoples lobbying to keep their homelands to immigrants facing challenges in their new home, works from our collection help us understand our nation’s beginnings.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned 1884 by William T. Evans, New York; (American Art Galleries, New York); sold 1900 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1884

  • Fifty-ninth Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, Spring 1884, no. 382.

1886

  • Exhibition of Paintings, Union League Club, New York, 11-13 March 1886, no. 7.

1889

  • Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Palais du Champ de Mars, Paris, 5 May-5 November 1889, no. 299, as Dans la terre promise.

1892

  • National Academy of Design, New York, November 1892, no catalogue.

1893

  • World's Columbian Exposition, Palace of Fine Arts, Chicago, 1 May-30 October 1893, no. 1018.

  • Sixty-third Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 18 December 1893-24 February 1894, no. 322, repro.

1894

  • Lotos Club, New York, November 1894, no catalogue.

1898

  • New York Athletic Club, May 1898, no catalogue.

1900

  • American Paintings Belonging to William T. Evans, American Art Galleries, New York, 31 January-2 February 1900, no. 115.

1935

  • American Genre: The Social Scene in Paintings and Prints (1800-1935), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 26 March-29 April 1935, no. 98.

  • American Life in a Century of American Art, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, November 1935, no. 34.

1936

  • An Exhibition of American Genre Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 13 February-26 March 1936, no. 86.

1949

  • De Gustibus: An Exhibition of American Paintings Illustrating a Century of Taste and Criticism, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 9 January-20 February 1949, no. 27.

1950

  • American Processional, 1492-1900, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 8 July-17 December 1950, no. 288, repro.

1958

  • Paintings of New York, 1850-1950, Museum of the City of New York, 15 April-8 September 1958, no catalogue.

1966

  • Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 15 April-30 September 1966, unpublished checklist.

  • The Lower East Side: Portal to American Life, 1870-1924, Jewish Museum, New York, 21 September-6 November 1966, no. 43.

1968

  • This New Man: A Discourse in Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 7 October-31 December 1968, unnumbered catalogue.

1974

  • The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Oakland Museum, 1974-1975, no. 110, fig. 144.

1976

  • Corcoran [The American Genius], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.

1979

  • The Working American, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, District 1199, New York, 18 October-24 November 1979, no. 35, repro.

1981

  • Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg, Florida, 1981-1983, no. 22, repro.

1993

  • Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair, National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 16 April-15 August 1993, unnumbered checklist, pl. 79.

2004

  • Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004-2005, unpublished checklist.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 53 (Washington only).

2009

  • American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

2011

  • Shapiro, Emily Dana. "Charles Frederic Ulrich, In the Land of Promise, Castle Garden." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 166-167, 272, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q46631258

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