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Paintings on the Fourth Floor:

Ivan Olinsky (1878-1962)

Portrait of Hamilton Higbie 36 by 30 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the Olinsky

Ivan G. Olinsky (American/Russian, 1878 to 1962) is well known for portraits and murals. He was born in Elizabethgrad in southern Russia and moved with his parents to New York circa 1890. He was an American artist by training. He studied at the National Academy of Design (1894-1898) and Art Students League (1901-1902), eventually teaching at both. From 1900-1908 he worked with John LaFarge by assisting him on stained-glass windows and murals. From 1908-1911, Olinsky worked on his own in Italy and France. He moved to New York to establish a studio in Greenwich Village. He won the Carnegie Prize, National Academy of Design in 1929 and numerous awards during his career. Some museums that have his works in their collections are the Smithsonian American Art, Museum, Washington, DC, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, and the Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit, MI.

Modern art historians consider Olinsky one of the last true realists as he was one of the few brave souls aside from Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent of the so-called art deco generation who did not advocate going abstract. Abstraction single handedly destroyed generations worth of teaching of draughtmanship when in the 1940’s and 1950’s many promising young artists were seduced by the come hither, easy alternative that abstraction offered. Suffice to say even the finest of artists today well trained draughtsman are heavily reliant on camera technology and can not free hand the way a William Merritt Chase taught in 1910. Chase by the way spent sixteen years arduously learning traditional methods of draughtmanship. Olinsky by his high quality art deco style of painting and his extensive resume as a teacher might be the critical link between 19^th century standards and 21^st century realistic America art.

Hamilton Higbie was a young member of the club from 1931 until 1941, when he died for reasons unknown. This painting was given to the club by his mother in 1951 because she remembered the high regard her son had for being a member of the Union League Club of New York.

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Homer Dodge Martin (1836-1897)

Saranac Lake 52 by 52 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Homer Dodge Martin

             Homer Dodge Martin was one of the first artists to introduce Impressionism into American painting. He is known for his melancholy, poetic landscapes, with subtle color and treatment of light. Martin was born in 1836 in Albany, New York. Although he was primarily a self-taught artist, he did study briefly with landscapist James Hart. During his early years as a painter, he faced many hurdles, including his lack of professional training and his physical ailments such as melancholy, chronic eczema, and failing vision that rendered him nearly blind towards the end of his life. He moved to New York City in the early 1860s and began to paint areas in the upstate New York area. He studied the landscapes of John Frederick Kensett, and made friends with John La Farge, who was known for his landscapes and still lifes. Martin’s works depicted natures unforgiving and cold characteristics. It is believed that the Adirondacks provided Martin his favorite venue for sketching.
            Martin made two European visits, the first of which was in 1876. There he was inspired by the works of Camille Corot and the artists of the Barbizon School, which flourished in France between 1830 and 1870, and was just beginning to be introduced into the United States. His second visit was in 1882, and he lived principally in Brittany and Normandy until 1886, though producing few works. Martin was part of a generation or group of artists whose works were transitional between the Hudson River School and the Barbizon group as it was called in France. This group crossed over from the early Hudson River School, with its attraction to the spectacular vistas of the American landscape, to the Barbizon’s rendering of landscape in a more poetic and contemplative manner. Returning to the United States, he was of considerable influence on the artist Nicholas Richard Brewer, another proponent of the Barbizon style, who met Martin in the early 1880s.
            Towards the end of his career, in 1893, Martin moved to Minnesota, having visited there a decade before. He settled in Saint Paul, where he lived while struggling with cancer. During those years in Saint Paul he created some of his finest works, including "Harp of the Winds: A View on the Seine" (1895), (oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City). Other typical works are "Sand Dunes at Lake Ontario" and "White Mountains," both at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and "Sea at Villerville," Kansas City Art Institute.
            He became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1874 and in 1877 was one of the founders of the Society of American Artists. Near the end of his life, nearly blind, he painted Adirondack Scenery from memory. Homer Martin died in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1897.

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Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)

Portrait of Robert Minturn 30 by 25 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the Minturn painting by Eastman Johnson

             Renowned for his sophisticated portrayals of American rural life, Eastman Johnson was also one of the most cosmopolitan painters of his era. Born in Lowell, Maine, in 1824, Johnson displayed an inclination for drawing at an early age. He initiated his training around 1840, when he began an apprenticeship in Bufford's Lithography Shop in Boston. Four years later, finding the employment dull and unchallenging, he returned to Maine and established himself as a portrait draftsman.
            In 1845, he moved to Washington, D.C., producing likenesses of such figures as John Quincy Adams, Dolly Madison and Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. A year later he was in Boston, where his sitters included Hawthorne, Emerson and Longfellow. Johnson began to work in oil in 1848. Desirous of developing his skills, he traveled to Germany in 1849, enrolling at the Düsseldorf Academy, in the company of such fellow Americans as Emanuel Leutze and Worthington Whittredge. In the summer of 1851 he left Düsseldorf, visiting Amsterdam and London. By the end of the year he had settled in The Hague. For the next three and a half years he studied the work of such 17th century -Dutch and Flemish masters as Rembrandt and Van Dyck. He subsequently developed a freer handling of paint, a richer colorism and a penchant for picturesque subjects. In 1855, he went to Paris, continuing his studies under Thomas Couture; however, his sojourn was cut short by the death of his mother in the fall, necessitating his return to America.
            Back in the Capitol City, Johnson painted a few portraits, but soon began to focus his attention on genre subjects. His first major genre piece was "Old Kentucky Home - Life in the South" (1859; New York Public Library, on loan to the New-York Historical Society), a depiction of the slave quarters in the backyard of his father's home. It was shown at the 1859 annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design, to wide critical acclaim, under the title "Life in the South." His reputation secured, Johnson was elected as Associate member of the Academy that same year and a full academician a year later.
            Throughout the 1860's and 1870's, Johnson worked with a variety of subjects that greatly appealed to the sentimental notions of his era. His themes ranged from runaway slaves and heroic Union troops to rustic types and young women and children in decorative settings. In 1871, Johnson built a summer home on Nantucket Island. He soon took up plein-air painting, utilizing a more vivid palette and taking a greater interest in light and shadow. Johnson subsequently produced some of his best work, including "The Cranberry Harvest" (Coll.: Timken Art Gallery, San Diego). He also painted the maple-sugaring camps around Fryeburg, Maine as well as a few landscapes and portraits.
            Johnson played a lively role in the New York Art milieu, holding memberships at the Century Association and the Union League Club and exhibiting with the Society of American Artists. He was also one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870 and served as a trustee until 1871. He died in New York in 1906.

Robert S. Minturn was the first president of the Union League Club when it was founded on Feb. 6, 1863.

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Francis Millet (1846-1912)

At the Inn 20 by 32 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the Millet painting

Born in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts and raised in East Bridgewater, he was an academic painter, known for historical genre, who was also a muralist, teacher, and President of the Guild of Boston Artists. As a youngster, he lived on a farm whose setting was rooted in colonial America. He was a drummer boy in the Union Army, and in 1869, graduated from Harvard College with a degree in literature but during his sophomore year had developed a strong interest in painting. His first artistic endeavor was decorating the Eagle Cotton Gin in Bridgewater, to help a friend who had the commission.

He worked as a lithographer for the Boston "Advertiser" and then in 1871 went to Antwerp, Belgium, to study painting at the Royal Academy where he won many prizes and was honored by the King. He studied painting in Rome and Venice and returned to the United States in 1875 to become a correspondent for the "Advertiser" at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition where he exhibited. In Antwerp he had become friends with German art student Otto Grundman, whom Millet later successfully recommended to become Director of the newly formed School of the Museum of the Fine Arts in Boston. In 1877, Millet returned to Europe, living in France, and became an on-the-scene reporter of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War. He later did the same task on the Spanish American War for "Harper's Weekly" and "The Times" of London. He married in France, and he and his wife returned to Europe, becoming a part of prominent society in France and England with close friends including John Singer Sargent, Elihu Vedder, and Augustus St. Gaudens.
In 1876, he painted murals at Trinity Church with John LaFarge, who benefited from Millet's European-earned knowledge of working with encaustic. He also did an occasional portrait including Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. The next fourteen years were extremely productive for him with many painting trips in Europe, and in 1885, he was elected to the National Academy of Design. In 1892-93, he was Director of Decorations and Functions at the Chicago World's Fair. In 1894, he returned to England and settled down to easel painting, but gradually became more and more involved in mural painting and give up genre subjects. He lost his life on April 14, 1912 when he, having been appointed Director of the American Academy in Rome, gave his life preserver to a fellow passenger on the sinking "Titanic."

This is one of his best known paintings, known from its black and white illustration in the Stanford White designed publication, “A Book of the Tile Club,” which was the subject of a new book as well as a touring exhibition from 1999 to 2000. The essay on Arthur Quartley discusses that group in greater detail. Millet’s work can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the National Academy of Design, NY, the West Point Museum, NY, the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, and the Tate Gallery in London, England.

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Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880)

Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment 16 by 30 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the Gifford painting once loaned to the White House

Sanford Robinson Gifford, not only was one of the early members of the Union League Club, but before that was in the Union Army of the Potomac, in an artistic capacity as a journalist. While many of the North, chaffed at the seeming inactivity (or paralysis) of the great Army of the Potomac, four of Gifford's 100 most important paintings chronicle daily life in the Army of the Potomac. Much of the early days of the War the Army spent its time readying itself for a Confederate invasion of Washington, DC, while waiting for an attack that never came, many of these early paintings of the Army of the Potomac depict its members in various states of idleness and boredom. The idea of depicting soldiers in various states and spectacles was an idea Gifford picked up in Europe while traveling. Ila Weiss writes of this very painting in her monograph on the artist, Poetic Experience, The Art and Experience of Sanford Gifford on page 227:

Some of the sketchbook studies of soldiers in various seated and reclining positions that were used for the Arlington Heights scene were also the models used for figures in a daylight view, Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment Near Washington, DC. The yellow green open field of a parade ground, overlooking the metropolis on the Potomac in the blue haze in the distance, is the tree framed setting for sabbath services. Clusters of soldiers (several in exotic, red zouave dress, and others in the buff and gray of the earliest Union uniforms)... direct their attention to the black robed speaker at the flag-draped podium in front center. In Europe Gifford had an eye for spectacles in which many people were contained in a wide landscape or a large space. A military mass for veterans at "Les Invalides" was pronounced a touching sight." At the start of what was believed in the North to be a righteous war, the American counterpart of such a service, which touched many chroniclers of army life, was naturally of great interest to him.

The primary subjects of this painting were the members Seventh Regiment of New York. New York City at that time of 1862, before the creation of the Union League Club, was a hot bed of support for the southern secessionists. There were even proposals by the Democratic Mayor Fernando Wood for the City to secede and form with Long Island and Staten Island the Republic of Tri-Insula. That of course never happened, though before the Union elements were to retake control the city, more than a thousand were said to have died in the Draft riots. This period of chaos, and the backlash to it were a part of the historical context of the formation and growth of the Union League Club.

This painting was bought from the artist in 1871, and was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1881 as part of the Sanford Gifford Memorial Exhibition. From 1868 to 1880 Gifford was a member of the club and served as a member of the Union League Club art committee.

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Edward Lamson Henry (1841-1919)

Presentation of Colors, 1864 17 by 26 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the E.L. Henry painting

The year 1863, the date of the Club's founding was an especially traumatic one for New York City. Aside the conflict of the Civil War raging a few hundred miles to the south, there were the Draft Riots. Our City was the arrival point for immigrants, and most were Irish. Unfortunately many proved to be fodder for Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall Democrat machine. This was an insidious machine with no loyalties to the United States or even to the War that the Union waged to reunite the Country. For a few days in July 1863, with the city stripped of all spare militia men as Lee threatened Gettysburg, PA, New York City had its own Civil War. Eventually order was restored, but not before an estimated one to two thousand died. Particularly hard hit were free African Americans, with many the subject of lynchings by Irish mobs. It was in that historical context a few months later that the Union League Club decided to raise, recruit, and outfit two all-African-American Regiments. When the first regiment was ready, the 20^th, a reporter from the New York Tribune was on hand to describe the event in detail, (also reproduced in the Union League Blue Book as "Our Club's First Work"), an event also depicted in Edward Lamson Henry's painting, "The Presentation of Colors, 1864":

The 20th Regiment United States colored troops formed line at the foot of Twenty Six Street, East River, and marched to Union square. Arriving in front of the Union League Club House at one o'clock. A vast crowd of citizens filled the square, and every door, window, verandah, tree, and house-top that commanded a view of the scene was peopled with spectators. Over the entrance of the Club-house was a large platform ornamented with flags and filled with ladies. In the street was another platform tastefully decorated and occupied by prominent citizens. From the stand the colors were presented by President King of Columbia College.

The order of march to the Canal Street pier was as follows:

Police Superintendent Kennedy.

One Hundred Policemen.

Members of the Union League Club.

Colored Friends of the Recruits marching with hands joined.

Governor's Island Band.

the 20th Regiment United States Colored Troops.

When they reached Virginia the 20th fought bravely, though if captured, they faced a cruel fate. Regarding prisoners of war, Robert E. Lee ordered that all white Union soldiers be treated properly, but that any colored Union Soldier would be shot even if they were documented United States Citizens. To the men of the 20th there was no choice, as freedom delayed was freedom denied. Fortunately the War would end within a year. The crusade John Brown sought to ignite in 1859, ceased in April 1865, with slavery abolished. The artist, Edward Lamson Henry was a member of the Club from 1868 to 1885.

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William Verplanck Birney (1858-1909)

A Pensive Moment 20 by 16 inches, watercolor on paper

Click here for a photo of the Birney painting

William Verplanck Birney was an artist whose subject matter covered many countries including American and Europe, and he painted whatever happened to strike his interest such as roof tops, kitchens, houses, whatever. At the International Exhibition in Munich in 1883, he was one of two Americans who sold pictures and his painting was titled "A Quiet Corner". It was a German peasant girl, daydreaming and reflected one of his signature subjects, which was private moments in time.
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1858 and studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy and the Royal Academy of Munich. He was a member of the Fine Arts Federation, Lotos Club, National Academy of Design, New York Watercolor Club, and the Salmagundi Club. He died in 1909. Birney's work can be seen in the Strong Art Museum, Rochester, NY; and the Washington county Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD,

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Edward L. Henry (1841-1919)

Reception at the Old Union League Club, Madison Square, 1875 15 by 19 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the Henry painting

Edward Lamson Henry was a member of the Club from 1868 to 1885. One of two works by him currently owned by the Club (another work of Gen. Grant's headquarters in City Point, Virginia was sold off in the 1940's) this one is a rare view of the second club house. The first Club house was on Union Square, but by 1868 they outgrew that one and moved north, to Madison Square, where from 1868 to 1881 the Union League Club occupied the mansion of Leonard Jerome. It was located on the southeast corner of 26th Street and Madison Avenue. Leonard Jerome was New York financier, and the father of socialite Jenny Jerome, who in turn was the mother of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Jeromes moved out in 1866 and while abroad, rented out their great home. From 1866 to 1868 the Jockey Club was the first tenant, then from 1868 to 1881 it functioned as the second home of the Union League Club. Later between 1881 and 1899 the occupants were the New York Yacht Club and then the University Club. By 1899 the Manhattan Club took it over and according to 1951 edition of the "History of the Union League Club" they still occupied the place. They must be gone now, as by 1998 an ugly brown glass and steel skyscraper occupies the sight.

The Jerome Mansion was a wonderful building which had a 600 seat theater in addition to the dining and kitchen facilities the earlier club house lacked. It was at this location that the Union League Club members, many having done the grand tour of Europe in the post Civil War prosperity, decided that New York City needed a world class art museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was the result of the Art Committee's deliberations from 1866 to 1869.

The 26th Street and Madison Club House served the Union League Club quite well, but the economic boom of the late 1870's saw too many shops and other commercial ventures began to spread uptown and take over the Club's neighborhood. Furthermore in 1874 on an adjacent lot north, across the street, showman P.T. Barnum started the doing shows at what became known as the Madison Square Garden. The once nice neighborhood was getting a little crowded, so the Club looked northward. They looked towards the Fifth Ave. neighborhood above 34th Street. There they found that Fifth Avenue landholders were notoriously greedy for holding out for the last dollar when it came to selling their land. Finally a plot was found on the Northeast corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue, property of the Bixby family, who in turn for rent equal to 5% of the land appraisal were happy to lease the land to the Club on which they could build their very own Club house.

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F. Childe Hassam (1859-1935)

Club Corner, May 1893 16 by 12 inches, watercolor on paper

Click here for a photo of the Hassam wc painting

Born in Boston, Frederick Childe Hassam was one of the foremost American painters in the country at the Turn of the Century. His early paintings are of the Tonal style, but soon shifted radically as he became one of the first American artists to fully embrace the French aesthetic of Impressionism and its broken brushwork while on a trip to France in the 1880's. Upon his return to the States in 1890 he took up residence in New York City, and his scenes of New York City from that time are considered to be his finest works. His favorite area of the City to paint was Fifth Avenue, and at 39th Street in those days was the third home of the Union League Club (1881-1931). Here we see the old boys in their top hats strolling outside the building. While Hassam was not a member of the Club, evidently the work caught the eye of member George Cochran (UL 1888) who donated it to the Club in 1923.

The Club House depicted here was the third home for the Union League Club. From 1881 until 1931 the Club's home was a palatial Queen Ann style building on the northeast corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue. That era in Club history was known as the glory years. United States Presidents were active members. Parades often went by on Fifth Avenue, and all the while a group of elderly gentlemen (affectionately known as the Chair Warmers) would sit in the same seat every day overlooking Fifth Avenue and watch the world go by. Some have said the reason the move to Murray Hill took place was for overnight rooms. Not true, as 57 overnight rooms were to be had. The real reason was the Club did not own the land, and the 20 year leases had a clause that made the club pay rent based upon a fixed percentage of the appraised value of the land. By the late 1920's with real estate soaring, taxes about to go higher, and an absence of liquor revenue (Prohibition 1919-1933) hurting the balance books, the Club had to reevaluate its physical plant. Far too expensive to expand a property they did not own, the decision was made to buy the plot of land next to the Morgan library. While the vote to do this was not close, it was considered to be the saddest day in Club history. When the move finally happened the upstart New Yorker lampooned it with a cartoon of a moving truck in front of the club and some strong porters carrying out the overstuffed armchairs with their elderly occupants looking quite bewildered and upset.

While not a member of the Union League Club, this is one of two compositions Hassam completed. The other one was the centerpiece of his 1917-1918 “Flag Series” of paintings which was meant to function as a moral booster showing Allied solidarity as the flags of many nations were on prominent display all around New York City. The centerpiece of that series was a view from across the street looking broadside on at the club with numerous allied flags on display. That painting must have been done sometime between November 1917 and the Treaty of Brest Litovsk which ended hostilities between Imperial Germany and the newly established Soviet Union as the actually is a hammer and sickle flag included amongst those of the Allied powers.

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F. Childe Hassam (1859-1935)

Connecticut Landscape 20 by 24 inches, pastel on paper

Click here for a photo of the Hassam pastel

Born in Boston, Frederick Childe Hassam was one of the foremost American painters in the country at the Turn of the Century. His early paintings are of the Tonal style, but soon shifted radically as he became one of the first American artists to fully embrace the French aesthetic of Impressionism and its broken brushwork while on a trip to France in the 1880's. Upon his return to the States in 1890 he took up residence in New York City, and his scenes of New York City from that time are considered to be the finest paintings ever done in this country. He also was instrumental in the establishment of summer art colonies in Connecticut in places like Cos Cob and Old Lyme. From 1894 to 1923 Hassam visited Cos Cob where his friends, colleagues, and fellow members of the “Ten American Impressionists,” J. Alden Weir and John Twachtmann were teaching in the summer. Hassam painted and etched numerous views of the town’s historical architecture and picturesque coastline.

After Twachtmann died in 1902, Hassam moved on to another Connecticut retreat, this being Old Lyme. Henry Ward Ranger had founded this as an art colony years earlier in the hopes of making an American Barbizon, which would have been the perfect place for Ranger and his followers to paint dark and brooding subject matter. Hassam would have nothing to do with that and dismissed Ranger and his followers as being members of a “Coal and Bitumen School.” Stung by such remarks and probably envious at Hassam’s success Ranger moved to Noank in 1905 leaving the field for Hassam and his fellow bright palette Impressionists to dominate the scene in Old Lyme. While there they would stay at the home of innkeeper Florence Griswold, now a museum dedicated to the art once produced in the bucolic art colony. It should be noted that while Hassam introduced what was then an avante guard way of painting to America, he often chose nostalgic images of New England’s past such as old Congregationalist Churches, town squares and rural landscapes.

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 10, 2004 until September 12, 2004 was a massive retrospective exhibition dedicated to Childe Hassam.

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Samuel Colman (1832-1920)

Scene on the Mediterranean 12 by 20 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the Colman painting

Samuel Colman was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up as the son of a prosperous publisher. The family business enabled the young man to meet Asher B. Durand of New York as Durand was a very prominent engraver before turning entirely to painting in the 1840’s. Eventually Colman would study under Durand and readily absorb the elder artists demanding sense of draughtmanship as the method of producing his Hudson River School canvases. In 1851 he began to exhibit at the National Academy of Design, and within three years was made an Associate of the Academy. The titles of works he exhibited showed the traditional Hudson River valley and White Mountain subject matter so typical for his generation. Eventually Colman’s horizon would expand and a two year trip to Europe would be done in the early 1860’s. When he returned he became active in the American Watercolor Society and joined the Union League Club. Not one to sit around he traveled out west to California in 1870, and the following year he went abroad again to Europe.

The 1870’s were a whirlwind of activity for this multitalented artist who traveled on both sides of the Atlantic as well as venturing out west. Later he would work as one of the greatest interior designers of the “Gilded Age,” as he and his friend Louis Comfort Tiffany designed and built the great cottages of Newport, Rhode Island, many of which still exist. All of this in addition to being one of the leading Hudson River School artists working in oil paint. Furthermore he was one of the founding members of the American Society of Painters in watercolor. This was not a man content to sit on his laurels. Eventually his many commitments caught up with him in 1880 as he tried to simultaneously resign from the National Academy of Design, the Century Association and the Union League Club, citing time pressures elsewhere. Most of these institutions declined to accept his resignation. Later in the 1890’s he began to paint again, but this time it was most often in pastel form with a distinctive “Barbizon” palette, a shift towards the popular tastes of that day that decidedly lacked the shimmering translucent quality of his earlier work.

“Scene on the Mediterranean” was painted in 1867 and was given to the Club by the artist, in lieu of an initiation fee. While not large, it has a great use of light and serves as a perfect example of why many of the second generation of the Hudson River School become known as the Luminists.

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Richard William Hubbard (1817-1888)

Scene on the Hudson River near Ossining, 1871 14 by 24 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Hubbard painting of the Hudson River

Born in Middletown, CT, Hubbard attended college at nearby Yale as a member of the Class of 1837 before moving on to New York City to study painting and draughtmanship under the established artists Samuel F.B. Morse and Daniel Huntington. It has been said that he went abroad to study art in 1840 and 1841, no European subject matter has yet to surface, either in period exhibition records, museums or art market activity. That being said he often professed admiration for the work of Claude Gellee of Lorrain (French 1600-1682) otherwise known as Claude Lorraine. For a period of about forty years he exhibited at the National Academy of Design, where he first made Associate member in 1851, and in 1859 achieved the status of full National Academician.

Being a resident of Brooklyn, it was natural that he was involved in the creation of the Brooklyn Art Association in 1861 and exhibited almost annually there until the mid to late 1880’s when he moved north to Mount Vernon, NY in Westchester County. During his stay in Brooklyn, he served as the third President of the Brooklyn Art Association. Other places he exhibited at where the American Art Union, the Century Association, the Union League Club, and elsewhere. He was a member of the Union League Club for a brief period of time in the mid 1870’s, and maintained a studio at the Tenth Street Studio Building to be near such friends as Sanford Robinson Gifford.

The exhibition records of the day indicate his favorite places to paint were the Hudson River, the lofty peaks of the Catskills, Lake George, Vermont, the White Mountains and central Connecticut in the Farmington area. Most of his works were small canvases, this way he could really focus his attention. In 1867’s The Book of the Artist, period art critic (Union League Club member) Henry Tuckerman wrote about Hubbard:

The careful observer of landscape art will often enjoy an agreeable surprise in discovering amidst more pretentious works, gems of quiet beauty wherein some of the least obtrusive but most winsome effects of nature have been tenderly conserved…Among the modest aspirants of this class, few have contributed more beautiful illustrations of native landscape than Richard William Hubbard. The absence of affectation alone would win to his best pictures a kindly eye; and then by degrees it is discovered that a remarkable harmony of tone, conscientious devotion to the truth, simplicity of aim, and a quiet but serious feeling, combine to claim attention and excite interest.

“Scene on the Hudson River” lives up to that statement and more as Hubbard captured on canvas a beautiful setting just north of the city looking towards Havestraw Bay. Many 19^th century historians simply get it wrong when they called the Mississippi the most important river of that time in the nation. Thanks to the Governor Dewitt Clinton’s foresight in building the Erie Canal, the total amount of goods carried on the Hudson dwarfed that of the Mississippi. That there scenery was so great, and artist like Hubbard were there to record it explains why the first American School of art was the Hudson River School and not the Mississippi River School nor the Delaware River School of Art.

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Edward Gay (1837-1928)

River Scene, New York State 17 by 31 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for the Edward Gay painting

Growing up in Albany, NY Edward Gay was among the hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants who relocated to the United States and Canada in the wake of the Potato famine. After settling in Albany, Edward began his art studies with the local Hudson River School artist James Hart, also an emigrant of the British Isles. By 1858, at the age of twenty one, Edward was exhibiting at the National Academy of Design in New York.
By 1868 he had moved to New York City, only to relocate to Mount Vernon two years later to accommodate the needs of a growing family. He would spend the next fifty-eight years painting southern Westchester County. Early on he was the typical Hudson River School artist but later he adopted a Barbizon manner by capturing the mood and light of many of Westchester County's quiet nooks and crannies.
Not only was he long lived, but he was very successful. Gay was a member of the both the Century Association and the prestigious Union League Club of New York. His works found their way into many museums and public collections, among them are: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the New-York Historical Society, NY; Westchester Woman's Club, Mt. Vernon, NY; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; and the Union League Club, New York, NY.

A letter concerning this painting was recently found in the club archives, reproducing a hand written letter from the artist. It reads as follows:

I submit the accompanying picture in lieu of my initiation fee and first annual dues.

It is a view from in front of the Whipple Mansion on the Creek, which formerly separated Van Rensselaers Island from the mainland near Albany, NY. The site is now occupied by the great Corning furnace and Albany and Susquehanna Railroad traverses the course of the creek.

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William Henry Lippincott (1849-1920)

Landscape with Sheep 31 by 53 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the recently restored painting by Lippincott

Born in Philadelphia, William Lippincott was a painter of interiors, portraits, landscapes, figure and genre scenes, who eventually settled in New York City and taught at the National Academy of Design. He was also noted as a painter of set designs including for "La Boheme" and "Salambo", and as an illustrator.
He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1874, he went to Paris, studied with Leon Bonnat, became a plein-air painter, shared a studio with Americans Edwin Blashfield, Milne Ramsey, and Charles Pearce. He exhibited in the Paris Salons until 1882 and then returned to the United States where he set up a studio in New York City. He exhibited regularly for more than 40 years at the National Academy of Design, elected an associate member in 1884 and a full academician in 1897. He taught at the Academy and was key to setting up still life as a regular part of the curriculum. He emphasized to his students the importance of color and form as well as drawing. In addition to the National Academy, Lippincott was a member of the New York Etching Club, Philadelphia Sketch Club, and American Watercolor Society. He died in New York City in 1920.

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Thomas Hovenden (1840-1886)

Their Pride 31 by 40 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for the Hovenden painting

Born in Cork, Ireland, Hovenden was orphaned by the age of six. Shortly thereafter he was entered into a seven years apprenticeship as a wood carver. Encouraged by the youngsters budding talents his master sent him to the cork School of Design. In 1863 at the age of twenty three he emigrated to the United States of American and took classes at the National Academy of Design in New York City. While in New York he worked as an illustrator at Harpers Magazine. In 1874 he went back to Europe, this time to Paris, where he would stay for the next six years studying under Alexandre Cabanel at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. While living in Brittany he met and married Helen Corson, a fellow art student. They would have two children, one a son named Thomas and a daughter named Martha. Martha would go on to become an important sculptress. He returned to the United States in 1880, this time joining his close friend Thomas Eakins on the staff of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Like Eakins, Hovenden was a superb draftsman and had a highly realistic style that more than matched the cameras of the day. While teaching at the PAFA, one of his students was Robert Henri who in turn would become one of the finest art teachers this country ever saw. Hovenden died in Plymouth Meeting trying to save a young girl from an oncoming train.

Justly regarded as one of the finest academic artists this country has ever produced, Hovenden’s craft was honed by years upon years of study. The painting “Their Pride” fully reflects that not only in the exquisite modeling of the individual figures but also in the still-life quality of the objects seen in the background. Considered to be by many to be one of the finest examples ever painted by the artist, “Their Pride” is decades ahead of its’ time in its’ sensitive treatment of the subjects, and has been included in every scholarly work ever done on the artist, most recently an exhibition in Pennsylvania about eight years ago. While often the subject in paintings of embarrassing caricatures, African Americans here are treated with dignity and pride. The oldest subject may have been born into slavery so seeing a young lade presumably his daughter dressing up as a fashion plate surely must have tickled his fancy. How times had changed during his lifetime. Tragically Hovenden died a few years after this was done cutting short a brilliant career. While with the advent of Barbizon and Impressionism such photo quality work would slip out of fashion, American Academic painting truly hit its’ highest note in Philadelphia with Hovenden and his friend Thomas Eakins.

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Alfred Wordsworth Thompson (1840-1896)

Halt at the Outpost 20 by 32 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the A.W. Thompson painting once loaned to the White House

Alfred W. Thompson was born in Baltimore on May 27, 1840. He studied art at Newtown University and by the time of the Civil War, Thompson was working as an illustrator for Illustrated London News and Harpers Weekly. Later in 1861 he went abroad to study art in Paris. From 1862 to 1864 he studied there, first under Charles Gleyre, then with Albert Pasini and later at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1865, and in 1868 returned to the United States, settling in New York. He was elected an associate member of the National Academy in 1873, and became a National Academician two years later. In 1877 became a member of the Society of American artists. Thompson, known for his subjects taken from the revolutionary period in America, also sketched and painted out-of-doors during eighteen years of travels to exotic locales like Asia Minor, Morocco and Spain. He traveled at various times in all parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and northern Africa, and his pictures cover a wide range of subjects, Oriental and American, including landscapes, genre pieces and military scenes. He retired to Summit, New Jersey, where he lived there for twelve years, dying there in 1896. The paintings of Alfred Wordsworth Thompson may be seen in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; New York Historical Society and Union League Club in New York City.

This painting depicts a scene in upper Manhattan during the time of British occupation during the Revolutionary War. There appears to be a woman in a coach having her papers inspected by a British red coat. It would be too much to guess that this is Mary Murray, but Thompson may have heard the same stories that Emmanuel Leutze heard. In any case there is a witty piece of graffiti on the side of the house urging, “DEATH TO ALL REBELS.” Obviously that did not happen, but with this painting been painted well after the fact in 1881, there may be some tongue in cheek humor at work since the American Civil War had ended sixteen years prior. The building on the right appears to be the Dyckman Mansion located at 204th Street and Broadway. Built in 1785 it would have never been occupied by British troops as it was constructed about two years after evacuation day, November 1783 when the British occupiers finally left New-York City.

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Emmanuel Leutze (1816-1868)

Mary Murray and an American Spy in British Occupied New York City, circa 1776

20 by 16 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Leutze, "Mary Murray"

Leutze was born in Wuttermberg, Germany on May 24, 1816, and as a child was taken by his parents to Philadelphia, where he early displayed talent as an artist. At the age of twenty-five he had earned enough to take him to Dusseldorf for a course of art study at the royal academy. Almost immediately he began the painting of historical subjects, his first work, Columbus before the Council of Salamanca, being purchased by the Dusseldorf Art Union. While there he also painted the work for which he is best remembered, namely the epic sized painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Supposedly he had fellow Dusseldorf student, and later fellow Union League Club member, Worthington Whittredge pose as Washington, since Whittredge was the tallest of their clique of American art students training in Dusseldorf at that time. In 1860 he was commissioned by the United States Congress to decorate a stairway in the Capitol at Washington, for which he painted a large composition, Westward the State of Empire takes its Way. He became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1860, joined the Union League Club in 1863 and died in Washington, DC on July 18, 1868.

This painting shows the Revolutionary War era personality Mary Murray conversing with an American spy with British troops milling about in the background. It was not known if she was a spy on the behalf of General Washington, but she is generally given some credit for delaying British General William Howe at her Manhattan farmstead by offering him wine and dinner. Howe accepted the gracious offer and Washington’s army lived to fight another day. The Murray farm was located on what became known as Murray Hill, today the home of the Union League Club of New York.

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Casimir Clayton Griswold (1834-1918)

Purgatory Point near Newport, RI, 1868 22 by 30 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Griswold

Casimir Clayton Griswold while born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1834, was descended from the distinguished family from eastern Connecticut bearing the same name. He studied wood engraving in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then moved on to New York City by the year of 1850. In New York he continued his studies culminating with his first known appearance exhibiting at the National Academy of Design in 1857. His specialty was described as landscape painting, but like here, he was also known to have done seascapes and coastal vistas. He was known to have joined the Union League Club in the late 1860’s and after that lived in Rome for a part of the 1870’s. Always regarded as a skilled artist by period reviewers, he largely disappears from the critics after the late 1870’s. He died in 1918. His work can be seen in museums like the National Academy of Design, NY, NY; and the Franklyn Delano Roosevelt home in Hyde Park administered by the National Park Service.

In retrospect, by comparing him with certain artists of his own day, his work can be described as a synthesis of the American Pre-Raphaelites and the Luminists. The American Pre-Raphaelites were better known in their own day as “the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art,” and differed from their English antecedents by making complete detail in a landscape the absolute priority of a painting’s composition. The Americans laborious approach to their canvases often provoked the complaint by the individual artists that “theirs was the loneliest on compositions” since it took so long to complete the work at hand. In somewhat contrast to that the English Pre-Raphaelites liked an abundance of detail, but, appearing burdened by history, they were often given to depicting maudlin scenes of medieval drama and despair, as exemplified by “The Death of Ophelia” by John Everett Millais in the collection of the Tate Gallery in London.

The American Pre-Raphaelites were not know for dramatic scenes along the coast at sunset, that was the domain of the Luminists, a subgroup of the second generation of the Hudson River School, whose scenes of natures at her most serene moments are some of the greatest American paintings ever. Here Griswold bridges the gap by painting an extremely detailed view of the Newport, Rhode Island vicinity at sunset, all the while seafaring vessels such as two sailboats dance about the far horizon along with one solitary coal burning steam vessel presumably outward bound for points unknown.

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Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836-1892)

Prairie Sunset, 1867 25 by 35 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Wyant, "Prairie Sunset"

Originally from Evans Creek Ohio, Wyant trained as a harness maker before falling under the spell of George Inness’ work. What Wyant discerned from Inness was that nature might be ominous or threatening as opposed to the general optimism found in the Hudson River School. Another artist of influence to Wyant, who embraced this sense of alienation from nature, was Hans Frederick Gude (1825-1903). Gude was a Norwegian whose ominous scene of the North Sea was on exhibit in New York City when Wyant happened to be passing through the area. The impact of that one work was sufficient to send Wyant to Germany for two years to study under Gude. From Gude, Wyant learned to work the composition like a fulcrum by balancing foreground against background with the emphasis on middle distance. Details were sacrificed for overall synthesis, with Wyant often emphasizing the stern or the harsh. Critics perceived his work to be powerful if ungainly.

Wyant enjoyed a great deal of success in his career, which when one realizes he suffered a stroke midway through his career after an arduous trip out west and he was forced to learn how to paint with his left rather than his right hand, makes him that much more remarkable. The later works tend to be darker and more contemplative in feel, with emphasis being sweeping vistas, but instead may be a simple growth of trees and forest clearings. For Wyant this development was perfectly executed as the 1870’s saw a tidal shift in tastes as the French Barbizon aesthetic was rapidly supplanting the once dominant Hudson River School in the art market. The rare American able to take advantage of the shift in tastes enjoyed near celebrity status. Such was the case of Wyant, as he was grouped with George Inness and Homer Dodge Martin as the Native Impressionists. Works by these three formed the nucleus of any institutional collection of significance being built at around the turn of the century. Consequently paintings by Wyant are to be found in almost all of the leading museums of the United States.

“Prairie Sunset” was done on Wyant’s first trip out west, almost seven years prior to his stroke and show the artist at the peak of his right handed powers. In a classic display of his “Fulcrum composition technique” the figures in the middle distance are placed squarely between the prairie grass foreground and the ominous sunset in the distance. Supposedly the painting was given by the artist in lieu of initiation fee upon joining the club in 1867, but no paper trail has emerged to support that claim.

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Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836-1892)

Housatonic River Valley 35 by 28 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Wyant, "Housatonic River Valley"

“Housatonic River Valley” was done likely in the mid 1870’s, and possibly just after his stroke. The blueish tint to the palette recalls the early years, but the technique seems to be from the left handed phase of his career, making this a transitional work in the artist’s oeuvre.

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William Merritt Chase (1849-1917)

Ready for the Ride 54 by 34 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Chase

William Merritt Chase was born in 1849 in Williamsburg, Indiana, the oldest child of a successful merchant. In 1861, the Chase family moved to Indianapolis, where Chase received his first artistic training under a local still-life painter, Barton S. Hays. Hays’ advised Chase to go to New York for further training at the National Academy of Design. By 1871, Chase moved to Saint Louis, where his family moved, but had little success. Outside Philadelphia in the 19^th century which had the rich tradition of the Peales, and the Germanic tradition, still-life painting was not exactly the road to success. Chase’s luck changed when two local businessmen financed his study at the Munich Royal Academy under Alexander von Wagner and Karl von Piloty. In return he paid them back for their generosity by purchasing or painting copies of Old masters while in Europe. Piloty, stressed a form which can be best described as a bravura style derived largely from the Spanish and Dutch masters of the 17th century, with the Spanish artist Diego Velasquez (1599-1660) being a good example. In Munich, Chase also met the "Duveneck Boys," a lively group of expatriate American artists gathered around the charismatic leadership of Frank Duveneck. Chase continued to study in Europe until 1878, making his total time as a student almost sixteen years devoted to painting.
Chase’s reputation as a painter preceded his return to New York in 1878. A teaching position also awaited him, the first in a long career, at the newly established Art Students League. Chase, with his lengthy training in Indianapolis, New York, St. Louis and Dusseldorf, was the ideal candidate to become the leading teacher of American art in his day. Eventually he would instruct such luminaries as George Bellows, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent and Georgia O’Keefe to name but a few. However, to focus one his teaching career would neglect his own career as a painter. Eventually Chase emerged out of the Dusseldorf genre phase into a modified follower of Whistler, and then after admiring the work of Belgian artist Alfred Stevens, began to paint in a more sunny plein air fashion often depicting in a borderline Impressionist manner his female students and family members in various poses in New York City parks, the dunes of Southampton and exotic places such as Holland, Venice and even Carmel, California. By the time of his passing in 1916 he had been a member of many artistic organizations such as the Ten American Impressionist Painters as well as many other honors and awards.

Ready to ride was completed in 1878, on the eve of his return to America. On the surface it looks like a copy of an Old Master, but in reality it is an aggressive autobiographical statement to America that chase was fully developed as a student and ready to return to America, to paint and to teach. When it was bought by Samuel Avery even before the young artist had returned home, it gave him buzz. He was a celebrity even before he got home, as the Union League Club with all of its art world contacts and all of its ties to the nascent Metropolitan Museum, was the place where young artists wanted their paintings on display. That Chase could sell the Union League Club a painting from afar without lobbying was an indicator that he had arrived.

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Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)

Wounded Drummer Boy, 1871 48 by 36 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Eastman Johnson, "Wounded Drummer Boy"

An American Art masterpiece purchased by the Union League Club directly from club member Eastman Johnson in 1872, this painting was done in 1871 as a tribute to those who served in the Civil War nearly a decade earlier. The battle this depicts was said to have been Antietam where one wounded drummer boy, when asked to drum an attack, responded with, “I can’t walk, but if you carry me, I will drum you to victory.” The first Confederate invasion of the north was halted at Antietam in autumn of 1862.

This theme of using charming children as a catch was popular during that day, with the particular authority on the artist, Patricia Hills, discussing this painting in detail on page 76 of Eastman Johnson:

....exhibited in the National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition of 1872, Johnson reverted to the Civil War, choosing from many stories made popular by history and literature of young drummer boys whose brave valor had inspired courage in their older comrades. Here the child, wounded but valiant and held aloft by a foot soldier, drums to raise the morale of the troops. The charming pathos of the subject disarms any genuine concerns for the hardships of war or the pitiful condition of this child-warrior.

We find Johnson in the early 1870's brightening his palette and allowing light to play a more dominant role: both symbolically and structurally. He was also broadening and developing his themes at this time.

This painting is considered to be by many, to be one of the most important works ever done by the artist and accordingly played a prominent part of a retrospective on the History of the National Academy of Design in 2000, as it had been exhibited to rave reviews by critics when first exhibited in January of 1872.

From 1868 to 1906, Eastman Johnson was a vibrant member of the club, taking an active role in the Art Committee as the chairman, and also with the club's world renowned offspring, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Richard William Hubbard (1817-1888)

Scene near Trumbull, Connecticut, 1876 22 by 36 inches, oil on canvas

Click here for a photo of the Hubbard painting of Trumbull, CT

“Scene near Trumbull, CT” lives up to that statement and more, as Hubbard produced an image with the quality of his smaller works, but executed it on a grand scale. This panoramic vista of the rural Connecticut landscape takes in an epic sweep of landscape from left to right. Long Island Sound shimmers with luminous brilliance in the distance, and in the foreground a simple farmer takes it all in while looking after a few cattle grazing in a field. The lake in the middle distance and the Trumbull address can be seen in the general vicinity of the Merritt Parkway and its intersection with Routes 25 and Route 8 between modern day Trumbull and Bridgeport, Connecticut, where a number of small lakes have since been expanded into reservoirs to serve the growing population of Fairfield County.

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Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933)

Twilight over Plum Island and the Parker River, 1887 38 by 57 inches, oil/canvas

Click here for a photo of the C.H. Davis

Charles Harold Davis was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He became interested in art at a young age and was inspired to pursue training after attending an exhibit of French Barbizon painting in Boston. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled as a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where he studied under Otto Grundmann (1844-1890). In 1881, Davis went to Paris and remained there foralmost six years. During the artist's French years, he studied at the Academie Julian and painted landscapes of the French countryside, particularly Fontainebleau and Normandy. These French paintings have been referred to by American art historian William Gerdts as softy Tonal landscapes in the Barbizon mode that are "among the finest painted by any American." In France, Davis exhibited at the Paris Salon and at the Paris Exposition, receiving recognition at both venues. At the same time, he built his reputation in America by sending works home for exhibition in New York and Boston.

Davis returned to the United States in 1890 and settled in Mystic, Connecticut, where he resided for the rest of his career. In Connecticut, Davis's landscapes shifted in style from tonal Barbizon to Impressionist, and by 1895 he turned his focus to a specific theme˜ cloudscapes, for which he is best known. In these richly colored, sun-filled paintings of the Connecticut countryside, Davis depicts low horizons and big skies filled with dancing clouds that cast shadows across the landscape. The leading figure in the Mystic Art Colony, Davis also founded the Mystic Art Association in 1913; other artists who followed Davis's lead to Mystic were David Walkley and John Joseph Enneking. A successful painter who received much critical acclaim during his lifetime, Davis had one-man shows at William Macbeth's gallery in New York and at Doll and Richards in Boston, and his works were exhibited in major national and international exhibitions of the period.

This painting has been something of a mystery until recently, when it was discovered that around 1886 and 1887 the American landscapes he produced from memory, while in France, that he would send back to United States expositions, were images of the Massachusetts Coast not to far from where he grew up in Amesbury, Massachusetts. This painting won the Halgarten Prize when it was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1888. It was purchased by the Club shortly thereafter as a way of encouraging a talented young man.

For additional information regarding the American art at the Union league club, e-mail Art Committee chairman and author of this catalogue, Alex Boyle at:

R_AlexanderBoyle@msn.com