Name/Title
Washington Irving and His Literary Friends at SunnysideEntry/Object ID
SS.79.47 a-bDescription
a. Painting: Group portrait of some men standing, some seated in the alcove and in background; curtained window at right revealing river, Palisades and sailboat (in reality wrong direction for river view); man seated in Gothic armchair in center with elbow resting on white tablecloth on table, holding glasses with ribbon in right hand; to his left, Irving sits in red chair and holds handkerchief; to the left of the painting is a stool with top hat, cane, book on it and dog lying beside stool; in background are painting and statue; carpet pattern in squares of yellow, red and green; with crumpled paper in foreground. Shown left to right are: Henry T. Tuckerman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Gilmore Simms, Fitz-Green Halleck, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Parker Willis, William H. Prescott, Washington Irving, James Kirke Paulding, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Cullen Bryant, John Pendleton Kennedy, James Fenimore Cooper, and George Bancroft; signed in left corner: "C. Schussele/1863."
b. FrameArtwork Details
Medium
Canvas, Oil Paint, Canvas, oil paintSubject Person or Organization
Washington Irving (1783-1859)Collection
Sunnyside Object CollectionMade/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Felix Octavius Carr DarleyAttribution
ArtistArtist
Christian SchusseleAttribution
ArtistDate made
1863Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
InscriptionTranscription
See descriptionDimensions
Dimension Description
ObjectHeight
50-3/8 inWidth
75-5/8 inDepth
3 inDimension Notes
Display Dimensions: 50 3/8 x 75 5/8 x 3 in. (128 x 192.1 x 7.6 cm)Dimension Description
FramedHeight
59-3/4 inWidth
83-3/8 inDepth
3-3/8 inDimension Notes
Display Dimensions: 59 3/4 x 83 3/8 x 3 3/8 in. (151.8 x 211.8 x 8.6 cm)Condition
Notes
Remarks: Overall crazing/tension cracks to canvas; frame: top left corner large chip (small portion of corner now missing); small white chip center top; raw edge down to bare wood top right corner backside of front molding edge; light chipping along right side near lower corner; brown spot at bottom left side near corner; small white chip at left side near upper corner; loose/peeling piece of gilding at upper right side of frame edge.Notes
Remarks: Felicity Campbell examined the canvas for possible inclusion in the 2012 Winter Antiques Show Loan Exhibition: painting should be on D-rings rather than a picture wire for installation; structurally stable; appears to have synthetic varnish that gives a overall opaque gray cast, but this is even so it's not noticeable; there are traction cracks (where the paint is affected by conditions in a different way than the canvas is) and these could be toned; could have a surface cleaning and touch up, removing the old varnish is a much larger project; some work could be done on top of the old varnish; suggests an anti-static brush for removing lint after transportation; Marylou Davis examined the frame: small nicks can be toned prior to display in the show [Jessa J. Krick, 9/8/2011]Notes
Remarks: Puncture mid to lower right side.Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Washington Irving (1783-1859)Notes
SubjectRelated Entries
Notes
SS.62.19 a-b - Engraving - Related
SS.2005.9 a-b - Engraving - Related
SS.2005.10 - Engraving - Related
SS.2021.57 a-b - Engraving - Related
SS.2016.12 - Engraving - RelatedGeneral Notes
Note Type
Curatorial RemarksNote
An identical version of this painting by Schussele is now in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, along with Schussle's companion image "The Men of Progress" (depicting the notable inventors of the day). Princeton University (which owns a copy of the "mammoth steel engraving" of Irving & Friends in its Graphic Arts Collection) posted a blog post in 2015 which states that rather than the engraving being produced first, both painting and engraving were produced simultaneously, with Mathew Brady providing the photographs of the writers [evidently from his archive, as Irving was already deceased] for "the fictional scene designed by Felix Darley." (The source of the Brady attribution is not known.) The engraving (by master printer Thomas Oldham Barlow) and painting were exhibited in New York City in December 1863. As quoted in the National Portrait Gallery caption for the work (acc # NPG.82.147), a New York critic wrote of the image [at the period?], "If [Irving] could have caught a glimpse of such a gathering . . . [he] would have dashed out of doors" (source? See curatorial object file for a copy of the blog post and NPG catalog entry) [Jessa J. Krick, Collections Manager, 5/25/2017].
Painted after Irving's death, this grouping of people was imagined by the artists Felix O. C. Darley (the engraving) and Schussele (the painting).
For Visions exhibition, packed in Crate #3.Note Type
StorageNoteNote
Home Location: Historic Hudson Valley, Union Church, Storage, Unit 5 Slot 3