Anne Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville (1771–1849); Corner of Greenwich Street, 1810. Watercolor, graphite, and touches of black ink on paper. New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
Upon first reaching the United States, the Neuvilles journeyed up the Hudson River and to Niagara Falls, where Henriette was one of the first to record many early settlements, buildings, and rustic scenes. In the watercolor Distant View of Albany from the Hudson River, New York (1807), she drew the panoramic view from the sloop Diana as it traveled downriver from Albany, chronicling the river long before artist William Guy Wall’s renowned Hudson River Portfolio (1820–25). The atmospheric vista conveys the majestic sweep of the Hudson and the reflections on its surface. In Break’s Bridge, Palatine, New York (1808), Neuville, who was intrigued by engineering and technology, depicts a newly constructed Mohawk River bridge destroyed by rushing waters. The couple in the foreground of the image is the Neuvilles, with their pet spaniel, Volero.
Neuville also captured vivid views of New York City residents and buildings — many of them long since demolished — bringing to life the burgeoning urban center and its ethnically diverse population. Corner of Greenwich Street (1810) represents a scene at the intersection of Greenwich and Dey streets. Near the cellar hatch of the brick house at the center stands an Asian man, who may be the Chinese merchant Punqua Winchong, making this work one of the earliest visual records of a Chinese person in the United States.
The Neuvilles contributed to the cultural life in New York as co-founders of the École Économique (Economical School), incorporated in 1810 as the Society of the Economical School of the City of New York. Its mission was to educate the children of French émigrés and fugitives from the French West Indies and to offer affordable education to impoverished children. Henriette sketched the students at the school, and many works from the “Economical School Series” are on view in the exhibition, including the recently discovered life size portrait, Pélagie Drawing a Portrait (1808), which demonstrates the school’s emphasis on drawing. Her series is the only visual record of the school’s existence.
The couple returned to France in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of King Louis XVIII and the Bourbon monarchy. In 1816, Louis XVIII appointed the baron French Minister Plenipotentiary, and the Neuvilles returned to the U.S., settling in Washington, D.C. They became renowned for their lavish Saturday evening parties and their friendships with President James Monroe and James and Dolley Madison. Among the notable events the Neuvilles attended was an “Indian War Dance,” performed by a delegation of 16 leaders of the Plains Indian tribes in front of President Monroe and 6,000 spectators at the White House on November 29, 1821. Neuville’s watercolor documenting the event includes likenesses of half-chief Shaumonekusse (Prairie Wolf) and one of his five wives, Hayne Hudjihini (Eagle of Delight). Later, the “War Dance” was also performed at the Neuvilles’ house.
Neuville’s portraits of individuals celebrate the ethnic and cultural diversity of the early American republic, and her portrayals are notable for their ethnographic integrity and avoidance of stereotypes. In the portrait of Peter of Buffalo, Tonawanda, New York (1807), the sitter has ear lobes pierced with earrings and bare feet, traditional for Seneca tribesmen. Wearing an undershirt, a fur piece, and leggings with garters, he carries a tomahawk, a knife, a powder horn, and a string of wampum. In the portrait Martha Church, Cook in “Ordinary” Costume (1808–10), Neuville depicts a cook in her everyday attire, as part of the artistic tradition of occupational portraits that originated in Europe and appeared in New York in the early 19th century.
The exhibition features works from New-York Historical’s collection, the most extensive in the world, as well as important loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the New York Public Library, the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs; the Museum of the City of New York; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum; Hagley Museum and Library; and Princeton University, Firestone Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, Graphic Arts Collection. Artist in Exile: The Visual Diary of Baroness Hyde de Neuville sheds light on this fascinating artist, whose life reads like a compelling historical novel.
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation provided lead funding for Artist in Exile: The Visual Diary of Baroness Hyde de Neuville, with important support given by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Additional support provided by Furthermore, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund; the Greater Hudson Heritage Network; Nicole, Nathan, and Brian Wagner; Helen Appel; Pam and Scott Schafler; David and Laura Grey; and Myron and Adeline Hofer.
Publication and Programming
Accompanying the exhibition is the scholarly publication Artist in Exile: The Visual Diary of Baroness Hyde de Neuville, published by GILES, an imprint of D Giles Limited. Written by Dr. Roberta J.M. Olson with assistance by Alexandra Mazzitelli, the publication also features an essay by Dr. Charlene M. Boyer Lewis.
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