Artist Biography

Van Dearing Perrine

(1869 - 1955)

Table of Contents

I. Biography

Characterized by brilliant color and pronounced effects of light, Van Dearing Perrine’s landscapes earned him the nickname “the Thoreau of the Palisades.” He was born in 1869 in Garnett, Kansas to the son of a homesteader and trader, whose early death reduced the family to financial hardship. As a result, a young Perrine worked to support himself as a farm hand, plasterer, and lather, and often traveled along the railroads. In 1893, he moved to New York where he studied at the Cooper Institute and National Academy of Design. Soon after, Perrine began to sketch from nature on the property of James E. Maxfield, an American painter and illustrator, in Ridgefield, New Jersey.

These early landscapes impressed several of his peers who soon followed suit, painting alongside Perrine in Ridgefield. The painting excursions developed into the Country Sketch Club, founded by Perrine, which held numerous exhibitions including at the National Academy of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago. The artist was singled out amongst the group for his “reckless sincerity [of] his land and sea work” and became known for his somber, turbulent canvases filled with massive rock and soaring skies that were painted in the years between 1902 to 1912. Perrine then moved from New York to the foot of the Palisades where he painted the immense scenery around him while living in a series of abandoned quarry-worker’s quarters, eventually settling there with his wife, Theodora Snow.

Perrine’s first solo exhibition took place in 1903 at the Glaenzer Galleries in New York City, grossing over $1,000 in sales. By 1912, he had developed the first of several “color machines,” devices that projected abstract chromatic patterns onto a surface and signaled his growing engagement with color and light as primary expressive agents. As described in The World Magazine (May 26, 1918), one such apparatus employed a light source passing through four reels of architect’s transparencies painted in bands of color, which rotated—apparently by means of a hand crank—in opposing directions to produce shifting visual effects.

In addition to his painting practice, Perrine was active as an educator: he taught art classes for children, authored Let the Child Draw, and, with his wife, taught at the Buxton School. During his lifetime, Perrine achieved a great measure of recognition, notably when Theodore Roosevelt acquired one of his paintings of the Palisades for display in the White House. His work is now held in the collections of major institutions, including the National Academy of Design, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the High Museum of Art.

II. Chronology

1869 Born on September 10th in Garnett, Kansas
1890s Arrived in New York City, studied art at the Cooper Institute and then at the National Academy of Design
1890s Shares a studio with Maurice Sterne at 835 Broadway; develops close friendships with Sterne, Alfred H. Maurer, and Maurice Prendergast
1897 Forms the Country Sketch Club which flourished from 1898 to 1912 holding a number of exhibitions at the National Academy of Design
1899 Becomes close friends with Maurice Sterne, Alfred H. Maurer, and Maurice Prendergast
1901 The Country Sketch Club has a large exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago of over 100 works
1902 The Robbers is completed at the Country Sketch Club. Perrine wins an honorable mention at the Carnegie Institute a year later and the work is purchased for the Institute’s collection
1903 Moves into a converted chapel and schoolhouse in Palisades Park, New Jersey
1903 First solo exhibition held at Glaenzer’s, New York, New York
1904-20s Exhibits at Durand-Ruel Gallery, New Gallery, Armory Show of 1913, among others
1909 Moves to High Ridge, New York in Westchester County
1911 Marries Theodora Snow
1915 Completes a drawing series of Isadora Duncan–one of the founding member of modern dance–that she has reproduced on the cover of her Metropolitan Opera House program
1915 Wins award at Panama Pacific Exhibition
1920s Exhibits at the Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, New York
1931 Elected a National Academician
1934 In June, Perrine visits the White House as a guest of Eleanor Roosevelt where Franklin D. Roosevelt purchases one of his Palisades paintings (now housed in the Smithsonian Collection)
1936 Publishes Let the Child Draw, becomes known for his unique art instruction geared toward children
1950s Teaches with his wife at the Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts
1955 Dies on December 11 at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut

III. Collections

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society, Short Hills, New Jersey
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska
Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie, New York
The Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
University of Michigan Museum of Art, UMMA, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

IV. Exhibitions

1899 National Academy of Design, New York, New York
1901 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1903 Glaenzer Galleries Solo Exhibition, New York, New York
1904 World’s Fair Exhibition, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri
1913 Armory Show, New York, New York
1917 Exhibits at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York
1920s Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, New York

VI. Notes

John I. H. Baur, “Rediscovery: Van Dearing Perrine,” Van Dearing Perrine: First Decade, 7.
David B. Dearinger, Paintings and Sculpture at the National Academy of Design, 1826–1925, vol. 1 (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2004), 440.
“The Country Sketch Club,” Art Collector 9 (June 1, 1899), p. 230; Baur, “Rediscovery: Van Dearing Perrine,” 7.