Late Autumn
$5,750
(prices subject to change)
Alexander Theobald Van Lear
(1857–1920)
- T. van Lear was an American painter, born at Auburn, New York. He studied at the Art Students League of New York and in the Netherlands under George Poggenbeck. He often exhibited with Adelaide Deming and Emily Vanderpoel. Examples of his landscapes in museums include:
- February Snow (Brooklyn Museum)
- Connecticut Hillside (National Gallery, Washington, D.C.)
- On the Brandywine (Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis).
___________________
The following is from: “Paintings by American artists; Colonial portraits; Macbeth Gallery” Catalog of locations of works and biographical sketches of fifty 19th and 20th century American Artists; Published by W. Macbeth, 1913, p. 93.
ALEXANDER T. VAN LEAR, N. A., Litchfield, Conn. Born Auburn N. Y., Feb. 9,1857. Pupil of National Academy of Design and R. Swain Gifford, New York; George Poggenbeek in Holland. Elected Associate, National Academy of Design, 1901; Academician, 1909. President American Water Color Society; Faculty of Schools of National Academy of Design; Member New York Water Color Club; Artists' Fund Society; National Arts Club; Salmagundi Club; Lotos Club. Represented in Lotos Club Permanent Collection; Brooklyn Institute Museum; National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; National Arts Club, New York; Public Museum, Montclair, N. J.; St. Louis Club, St. Louis, Mo. Awarded Bronze Medal, Charleston Exposition,1902; Gold Medal, St. Louis Exposition, 1905.
___________________
And, from “Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design (v. 1)” 2004, By David Bernard Dearinge, p. 550:
After finishing high school in Auburn in 1876, van Lear moved to New York and studied at the National Academy of Design. He was enrolled in the antique class from 1877 to 1881, and in the life class for the 1880-81 school year. He also attended the Art Students League and studied privately with R. Swain Gifford and the Dutchman George Poggenbeck. Van Lear made his first appearance in an Academy annual in 1880 with two crayon portraits. A twelve-year hiatus followed, during which he may have spent time in Ohio. By 1892, when he was back in New York, he had made landscape painting his specialty.
Van Lear had a second, important career as a lecturer and teacher of art history. For more than two decades, he taught at the Chautauqua resort, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy. His lectures to students at the Academy included special topics, such as the life and work of Rembrandt, as well as general painting surveys. In 1912, he began a three-year term on the Academy Council. He spent his final years in Litchfield, Connecticut, but died while visiting his brother-in-law in Indianapolis.