Marshall O. Roberts

In 1869 Van Wart married Carrie Roberts, the daughter of Marshall Owen Roberts (1814-1880), the American transportation entrepreneur and art collector. He served on the Metropolitan Museum’s Board of Trustees in 1870 and 1871 and was a staunch supporter of American artists. His best-known acquisition is Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” (97.34). It is unclear whether Van Wart began this portrait of his father-in-law before Roberts died in 1880. The bust is dated 1884 and thus was completed posthumously. The bust reveals Van Wart to be a competent portraitist and is typical of its period in depicted the bearded sitter dressed in the fashion of the day. Captain Marshall O. Roberts gave the portrait of his father to the Museum in 1927, the year of Van Wart’s death.