View of the Delaware near Philadelphia
1831
Painter, American, born England, 1779 - 1859
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 102.87 × 153.04 cm (40 1/2 × 60 1/4 in.)
framed: 127 × 177.64 × 10.16 cm (50 × 69 15/16 × 4 in.) -
Accession
2015.19.80
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Private collection, Pennsylvania;[1] owned jointly by (James Graham & Sons, New York) and (Victor D. Spark, New York), by 1953; purchased 1955 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Victor Spark, in a letter of 6 June 1953 to Corcoran director Hermann Warner Williams, Jr. (in NGA curatorial files), writes: "The picture came from a private family in or near Philadelphia through an agent, and we, obviously, would have difficulty obtaining the name. It has never been on the market..."
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1831
Twentieth Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 2 May - 25 June 1831, no. 40.[1]
1963
Progress of an American Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 25 October - 29 December 1963, unpublished checklist.
1966
Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 15 April - 15 September 1966, unpublished checklist.
1970
Loan for display by the Special Fine Arts Committee, U.S. Department of State, Washington, 3 April 1970 - May 1974.
1976
Corcoran [The American Genius], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 24 January - 4 April 1976, catalogue with no checklist.
1988
Loan for display at Blair House, Washington, 10 June 1988 - 21 August 1997.
2004
Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 November 2004 - 23 May 2005, unpublished checklist.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, NY; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no.14.
2008
The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1 March - 27 July 2008, unpublished checklist.
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American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June - 18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.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
1966
Phillips, Dorothy W. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vol. 1: Painters born before 1850. Washington, 1966: 44, repro.
2000
Cash, Sarah, with Terrie Sultan. American Treasures of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. New York, 2000: 47, repro.
2011
Carson, Jenny. "Thomas Birch, View of the Delaware near Philadelphia." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 76-77, 258, repro.
Inscriptions
lower left: Thos Birch / 1831
Wikidata ID
Q46627047