Washington's Headquarters at Tappan

Artist Sarah Hendrickson Van Schoick Reid

PeriodAfter 1856

MediumPastel, charcoal and graphite on prepared board coated with marble dust

Dimensions10 × 12 in. (25.4 × 30.5 cm)

SignedSigned on the reverse, "Sarah H. Reid."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of W. Gilbert and Janet Manson, 1992

Object number1993.501

DescriptionLandscape view of an early Dutch house with a steep roof, broad overhanging eaves, a door flanked by two windows to the right and one window showing to the left, two chimneys, and arched trim along the front edge of the eaves. A lower wing is attached to the main structure, with one chimney. The yard around the house is fenced with mix of horizontal rails and vertical boards or pickets. In front of the house is a well, with a tall well sweep. A small one story second building appears near the left edge of the painting, with one door, two windows, and one chimney. The foreground consists of a pond with two ducks or geese, vegetation, and rail fencing along the far shore. Trees surround the house, with more between the house and the smaller structure. Mountains appear in the distance under a sky with clouds.
Curatorial RemarksMarble dust painting was a popular medium in the mid-nineteenth century, particularly among school girls. Charcoal or pastel was applied to a thin piece of cardboard that had been prepared with a coating of marble dust. The technique is often, and inaccurately, referred to as “sandpaper painting.” Sarah Hendrickson Van Schoick Reid signed this work on the reverse. It serves as the attribution basis for an unsigned companion view of Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh. The two works, identical in size and materials, were donated to the Association by the artist's great-granddaughter, along with a third work depicting Rutgers College by the artist's sister, Mary Ann Van Schoick, that is also signed on the reverse and dated 1857. A third picture attributed to Sarah Reid of the Morford and Spinning Store in Red Bank, Monmouth County, was given to the Association in 1933 by her grandson, Thomas Irving Brown, with its history intact. Brown was the uncle of Janet Brown Manson, donor of this work.NotesThis view depicts Washington's Headquarters at Tappan, NY, now known as the De Windt House. It was copied from an as-yet-unidentified mid-19th century steel engraving after an oil on canvas painting of the scene by Cornelius L. Ver Bryck (1813 - 1844). The artist lived in Tappan. A photograph taken in the 1930s by the Historic American Building Survey shows the arched trim on the front eaves of the De Windt House that has now been removed. Although a generally faithful copy of the engraving, Reid has taken a few liberties by eliminating three cows in or near the pond in the foreground, and adding the two geese or ducks (which do appear in the Ver Bryck painting but not in the steel engraving). Sarah Hendrickson Van Schoick (1835 - 1886) was the daughter of William Van Schoick and Eliza Hendrickson of Middletown, Monmouth County. In 1856, she married R. Van Dyke Reid (1833 - 1915) of Red Bank. Sarah Reid was the great-grandmother of the donor.

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