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The Gansevoort Limner (Possibly Pieter Vanderlyn)

Miss Van Alen, c. 1735

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 79.2 x 66.4 cm (31 3/16 x 26 1/8 in.)

framed: 93.3 x 79.7 x 3.8 cm (36 3/4 x 31 3/8 x 1 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Accession Number

1956.13.14

Artists / Makers

The Gansevoort Limner (painter) American, active 1730/1745

Pieter Vanderlyn (painter) American, c. 1687 - 1778

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

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).

Associated Names

Downtown Gallery
Garbisch, Edgar William, Mr. and Mrs.
Tassel, Mr. Van
Unknown Patron

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.

2018: Outliers and American Vanguard Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2018-2019, no. 1, repro., brochure fig. 1.

2019: Edith Halpert:The Downtown Gallery and the Rise of American Art, Jewish Museum, New York, New York, 2019 - 2020, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

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: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 186, repro.

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.