New-York Historical Society

“ The minister of our Lord raises his hands to heaven, on which he gazes with an expression of burning hope. How he seeks to discover the first rays of the eternal light! How he longs for the moment in which he shall appear before the Almighty! ”

“ The shades of evening steal over shattered and ivy-grown ruins. The steep promontory, with its insulated rock, still rears against the sky, unmoved, unchanged; but violence and time have crumbled the works of man, and art is again resolving into elemental nature. ”

“ He received some instructions from John Singleton Copley and in 1770 went to London, where he met Benjamin West, under whom he studied. In 1776 he established himself in Philadelphia, painting portraits. He became a Captain in the Revolutionary War, a member of the Legislature, and founded, in 1802, "Peale's Museum." He took up in turn the making of coaches, harness, clocks and watches, besides working as a silversmith; he was a naturalist, dentist and author, but was most famous as a portrait painter, having painted fourteen portraits of Washington from life. ”

“ A French historical and portrait painter, born at Montpellier. He studied in the School of Bon Boulogne, at Paris.
Raphael Sanzio di Urbino (1483-1520) .
Styled the Prince of Painters, and acknowledged to have possessed a greater combination of the higher excellencies of art than has fallen to the lot of any individual. He was placed in the School of Perugino after having learned the elements of design from his father, Giovanni Sanzio, a painter of little celebrity. He visited Florence and Rome, and died at the latter place at the age of thirty-seven years. ”

“ Luxury has enervated, vice has debased, and the strength of the mighty nation has consumed away. A barbarous enemy sacks the city. The heavens are darkened by a tempest, and the storm of war rages beneath, amid falling walls and colonnades, and the flames of temples and palaces. ”

“ Later he became a merchant in New York and between the years 1815 and 1832 he gained a fortune. It was then that he began to gratify other instincts and art attracted his attention. He became the patron of American Art and sought the acquaintance of artists, interesting himself in their labors, giving them many commissions for work.
Mr. Reed lived at 13 Greenwich Street, this city, the third story of which building he used as a picture gallery, to which visitors were admitted one day each week. This room was also a meeting place for the artists and literary men of the time. ”

“ The little angel has those brilliant eyes, and that expressive visage, which this master knew so well how to paint; it is certainly not inferior to those which we admire in the grand salon of the Louvre. The angel of the second age charms the eye by a grace and an easiness of attitude extremely remarkable ”

“ A Dutch painter, born at Gorinchem. It is not known under whom he studied, but he settled at Antwerp, where he acquired considerable reputation.
C. B. Julien St. Memin (1770-1852) .
Born and died in Dijon, France. He introduced in America, a machine called a "physionotrace," by which the human profile could be copied with mathematical accuracy and produced over 800 engraved portraits of distinguished citizens. Later he took up portrait and landscape painting and in 1817 was appointed director of the Museum at Dijon. ”

“ A Dutch painter who painted subjects taken from the Old Testament, after the style of Rembrandt, in whose school he was educated.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) .
An eminent painter and sculptor, the son of Pietro da Vinci, notary to the Florence Republic. He became the student of Andrea Verocchio, whom he soon surpassed. He visited Milan, Venice and Rome, and in 1516 he went to France at the invitation of Francis I. and spent the last three years of his life there. ”

“ The useful arts have commenced in the construction of the canoe, the weapon, and the hut; and we may imagine the germs of two of the fine arts, music and poetry, in the singing usually accompanying the dance of the savage. The empire is asserted, to a limited extent, over sea, land, and the animal kingdom. ”

“ Born in Dublin, and came to New York in 1818, where he began his career as an artist, painting landscapes in oil and water color, the Hudson River Views being the first he made for publication.
Anthony Waterloo (1610-1679) .
Dutch painter and engraver, born at Lillie, of whose early history little is known. He spent most of his life in Utrecht, and became an excellent landscape painter. ”

“ A Dutch painter of whom little is known. He flourished at Rotterdam about 1640-1666. His pictures represent interiors of churches and other edifices.
Claude Lorraine (1600-1682) .
Born in Chamagne, Lorraine, and learned the first rudiments of art from his brother, who was an engraver on wood. He entered the Academy of Godfrey Waal at Naples and later studied under Agostino Tassi, a landscape painter at Rome. ”

“ Andrea Mantegna.
Mr. Michiels, the distinguished critic employed by the Belgian Government to prepare a history of Flemish Art, says of this work: "The Christ has a nobility in his attitude which few painters have been able to give him; the expression of the good robber is also grave and dignified. The whole picture bears the impress of a serene imagination; the coloring is sombre; the attitudes are distinguished by an air of majesty. We feel that the artist had, at the commencement of his career, severely studied the ancients. Two cuirasses, and some of the draperies, are gilded ”

“ A native of New York, who studied art under Benjamin West at London and in January, 1771, advertised his pro [Pg 163] fession as a portrait painter in the New York newspapers. Six months later he advertised again, as selling various articles of merchandise as well as "most kinds of painting done as usual, at reasonable rates." In his latter days Dunlap says he was poor and dependent on sign-painting for his support. He died about 1786. ”

“ Wealth, vice, corruption."
(Reed Collection.)
(New York Gallery of Fine Arts.)
[FIRST OF THE SERIES.]
1. The "Savage State," or "Commencement of Empire." (611⁄2X39.)
The sun is rising from the sea, over a wild scene of rocks, forests, and mountains, dissipating the clouds and darkness of night. Man, attired in skins, is seen engaged in the wild dance and the chase—the characteristic occupations of the savage life. In the picture, we have the first rudiments of society. Men have banded together for mutual aid. ”

“ A German artist, born at Weimar and died at Dresden. He learned the first principles from his father and afterwards studied under Alex. Thiele, a landscape painter. Was also an engraver of reputation.
John Dixey ( -1820) .
Sculptor, born in Dublin, Ireland, and educated in London. He was a student of the Royal Academy and came to America in 1789. He was vice-president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and lived many years in New York. ”

“ The New York Gallery of Fine Arts, presented to the Society in 1858, with paintings donated to the Society at various times, are numbered 1 to 488 inclusive. Any notice of this collection would be deficient which should fail to commemorate the name of Luman Reed, Patron of American Art. In this connection the Society was chiefly indebted to the liberality and cordial coöperation of one of their most valued members, who was himself the chief promoter of the original design of the New York Gallery of Fine Arts, Mr. ”

“ Born at Haerlem; died at Antwerp. A Dutch painter of poor parentage. Francis Hals offered to take him into his school, which he gladly accepted. He was a friend of Adrian Ostade and Rubens.
John H. I. Browere (1792-1834) .
Sculptor, a student in Columbia University, and later studied painting under Archibald Robinson. After visiting Europe he returned to New York in 1819 and took up modelling. He devoted a great amount of time in forming a collection of busts which he executed of the most noted men in the country, prominent in history. ”

“ A native of New York; is highly esteemed for his portraiture of women and children. He was the pupil of his father, a miniature painter.
Thomas Ball (1819-1911) .
Sculptor; born in Charlestown, Mass. Died at Montclair, N. J. He was a singer and portrait painter and in 1852 he took up modelling and executed a number of busts and statues, having studied in Europe several years.
Giorgio Barbarelli (1477-1510) .
Born at Castelfranco, near Trevigi. An Italian portrait painter called Giorgione. Studied in the school of Giovanni Bellini, at Venice, where Titian became his fellow student. ”

“ In the aged man describing the mathematical figure, the rude attempt of the boy in drawing; in the female figure with the distaff, the vessel on the stocks; in the primitive temple, and the dance of the peasants to the music of the pipe, we have evidence of the advance made in science, in the useful and the fine arts. ”

“ He settled in Holland and acquired fame as a portrait painter.
Gilbert Stuart Newton (1797-1835) .
Born in Halifax, N. S.; died in Chelsea, England. He received some instruction from his uncle, Gilbert Stuart. When a youth he went to Europe and entered the Royal Academy in London. There he lodged with Washington Irving. In 1831 he sailed for the United States, married in Boston and returned to England in October, 1832, and died three years later.
Jacob van Ochterveldt.
A Dutch painter, of whom little is known except by his works, in which he imitated the style of Gerard Terburg. ”

“ Very few Raphaels of this period exist. Those which are in the Vatican and the Louvre, show, in style and handling, an exact similarity to these pictures, which is absolutely conclusive. The donor wishes it to be understood, that, in his opinion, and in that of some of the accomplished and practised experts in Europe, there is not the slightest doubt of the authenticity of these pictures. Only the inexperienced and the uncultivated fail to trace in them the pencil of the divine Raphael.
(Bryan Collection.)
B-26. Madonna and Child. (28X211⁄2.) Copy from Raphael. ”

“ Aurelius de Emael, is written in German-text across his figure. Behind him is a weeping female figure; on the left is a group of dignitaries and soldiers. A landscape, in which the towers of a distant city appear, closes the scene. Underneath the left arm of the cross appears the legend, Vere Filius Dei erat iste, in Roman characters of the epoch, which ceased to be used after the time when the painting in oil commenced. ”

“ An old Sienese painter who made great improvement over the Greeks before the time of Cimabue and Giotto.
Francis Guy (1760-1820) .
Born in England and came to New York in 1795, going to Philadelphia and Baltimore, where he established dye-works. He also had been a tailor, but always worked at landscape painting, to which he was devoted. About 1817 he returned to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he died. ”