A German Immigrant Inquiring His Way

Artist Charles Felix Blauvelt American, 1824–1900

Date1855

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions36 1/8 x 29 in. (91.8 x 73.7 cm)
Frame: 42 3/8 x 35 3/8 in. (107.6 x 89.9 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.2

On View

Not on view

Provenance**Created United States, 1855. Mrs. De Mount, New York, 1879. [John Levy Galleries, New York] [1]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] Levy inv. no. 26805

Published References"Editors's Table: Exhibition of the National Academy of Design," The Knickerbocker 45 (May 1855), 531. Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works, 2 Vols. (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Co., 1879), listed Vol. 1, 66-67 (as owned by Mrs. De Mount, New York). John Denison Champlin, Jr., and Charles C. Perkins, eds., Cyclopedia of Painters and Painting, 4 Vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885), mentioned Vol. 1, 164. W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 2. "The Good & Bad Old Days." (review of "A Hundred Years Ago" exhibition) Time 74 (Nov. 2, 1959), 68, noted. Tobacco and Smoking in Art (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1960), cat. no. 14, illus. (b-w) 110. American Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 3, illus. (b-w). The Good Life: An Exhibition of American Genre Painting (exhibition brochure) (Orlando: Loch Haven Art Center, 1971), no. 1. Hermann Warner Williams, Jr., Mirror to the American Past: A Survey of American Genre Painting, 1750-1900 (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973), discussed 173, illus. (b-w) fig. 166. Patricia Hills, The Painter's America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910 (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Praeger Publishers in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974), discussed 48, illus. (b-w) fig. 60. American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (brochure) (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art, 1975), no. 2. American Paintings from the Permanent Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (exhibition catalogue) (Asheville: Asheville Art Museum, 1976), listed (with artist's bio.) 2, illus. (b-w) 3. Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 240. Hugh Honour, The Image of the Black in Western Art, Vol. 4: From the American Revolution to World War I, 2 Parts (Houston: Menil Foundation, 1989), discussed Part 2, 79, 81, illus. (b-w) fig. 55. Randall M. Miller, ed., States of Progress: Germans and Blacks in America over 300 Years (Philadelphia: German Society of Pennsylvania, 1989), illus. (b-w) 47. Michael Kammen, Meadows of Memory: Images of Time and Tradition in American Art and Culture (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992), discussed 102, illus. (b-w) fig. 2-43. Hans-Jürgen Pandel, ed., Geschichte Konkret 2 (Hannover: Schroedel Verlag, 1997), 254, illus. (b-w) fig. 254.1. Charles C. Eldredge, et al, Tales From the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950 (exhibition catalogue) (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004), mentioned 27, illus. (b-w), 28, fig. 14. Heike Paul, Kulturkontakt und Racial Presences, American Studies, Vol. 126 (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH, 2005), illus. (color detail) cover. Bruce Robertson, "Stories for the Public, 1830-1860," in American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (exhibition catalogue), H. Barbara Weinberg and Carrie Rebora Barratt, eds. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009), discussed 65-67, illus. (color) 66, fig. 63. James L. Roark, et al, The American Promise: A History of the United States Vol. 1, 5th Edition (textbook) (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012), briefly discussed and illus (color) 367.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, National Academy of Design, "30th Annual Exhibition," March-May 1855, no. 76 (as The German Emigrant Inquiring his Way). Washington, DC, Washington Art Association, "Second Annual Exhibition," December 15, 1857-February 10, 1858, no. 87 (as German Emigrant Inquiring his Way). Troy, NY, Young Men's Association, "Fourth Annual Art Exhibition," February1-March 2,1861, no. 204 (as Inquiring the Way, for sale). American Federation of Arts, "A Hundred Years Ago" (traveling exhibition), November 2, 1958-November 24, 1959. Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Tobacco and Smoking in Art," October 14-December 4, 1960, no. 14, illus. (b-w) 110. Orlando, FL, Loch Haven Art Center, "The Good Life: An Exhibition of American Genre Painting," September 24-October 24, 1971; St. Petersburg, FL., Museum of Fine Arts, November 3-28, 1971, no. 1. New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, "The Painter's America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910," September 20-November 10, 1974; Houston, TX, Museum of Fine Arts, December 5, 1974-January 19, 1975; Oakland, CA, Oakland Museum, February 10-March 30, 1975, discussed 48, illus. (b-w) fig. 60. Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum of Art, "American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," September 7-October 19, 1975, no. 2. Asheville, NC, Asheville Art Museum, "American Paintings from the Permanent Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," May 16-June 27, 1976, listed (with artist's bio.) 2, illus. (b-w) 3. New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915," October 12, 2009-January 24, 2010; Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February 28-May 23, 2010, cat. pp. 65-67, illus. (color) 66, fig. 63. Winston-Salem, NC, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, "Virtue, Vice, Wisdom and Folly: The Moralizing Tradition in American Art," September 18-December 31, 2010.

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