Gallery of American Art, No. I

Publisher American Art-Union, New York American

1850–51

Not on view

Incorporated in 1840, the American Art-Union boasted nearly nineteen thousand subscribers at its height in 1849-50. For an annual fee of five dollars, each member received a large engraving and was entered in a lottery to win a work exhibited at the Art-Union's Free Gallery. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the institution established an impressive distribution network that reached members in every state. This contributed to the creation of a national market for landscapes and genre paintings. The system flourished for a limited period, however, with no lottery taking place in 1851, the year that the Art-Union issued this set of five small engravings.

The works in the set are:

1: James Smillie after Asher B. Durand, Dover Plains [1993.1083(2)]

2: James Smillie after Thomas Cole, Dream of Arcadia [1993.1083(2)]

3: Alfred Jones after Emanuel Leutze, The Image Breaker [1993.1083(4)]

4: Alfred Jones after Francis William Edmonds, The New Scholar [1993.1083(5)]

5: Charles Burt after Richard Caton Woodville, The Card Players [1993.1083(6)]

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Title: Gallery of American Art, No. I
Publisher: American Art-Union, New York (1838–51)
Date: 1850–51
Medium: Etching and engraving on steel and paper wrapper
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 14 15/16 in. (49.5 x 38 cm)
Classification: Albums
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1993
Object Number: 1993.1083(1–6)
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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