The Loeb Acquires 4th Henry C. Gritten Painting of Matthew Vassar’s Springside, Reuniting Set

The paintings are on view in an installation specially coordinated in tandem with the Olmsted Network’s annual conference, “Landscapes of Renewal: Olmsted, Downing, and Vaux,” focusing on parks and landscapes of the Hudson Valley, including Downing Park, Vassar College, Springside, and the Hudson River State Hospital site. The conference brings together historians, scientists, and preservationists to discuss the stewardship of these places, and the pathways by which landscape affects physical and mental health.

In making the announcement, Bart Thurber, The Loeb’s Anne Hendricks Bass Director, said, “The purchase of the missing painting for the collection carries immense historical significance for our understanding of the original design of the estate, and it represents an important point of reference for the study of landscape painting of that era.”

This series of paintings displays various perspectives of Springside, which served as Matthew Vassar’s summer retreat for many years, and is now a National Historic Landmark within the city of Poughkeepsie. An active member of the Poughkeepsie community, Vassar was elected president of the Poughkeepsie Village Board of Trustees and head of the cemetery committee. Vassar purchased Springside’s land in 1850 for use as a rural cemetery, but once the committee decided on an alternative location, Vassar was left with Springside for himself.

Vassar hired Andrew Jackson Downing, renowned horticulturist, author and tastemaker, and one of the founders of American landscape architecture to plan Springside. Springside’s design juxtaposed elements of what Downing considered the “Beautiful,” with soft meadows and rounding carriage trails, and the “Picturesque,” with woody knolls and irregular rocky forms. Downing’s approach for the estate embraced the topography of the land while adding more curated, beautiful elements, a precursor to the work of esteemed architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Downing’s architectural partner, in their design for Central Park.

In 1852, Downing died in a steamboat accident on the Hudson River. That same year, Matthew Vassar commissioned Henry C. Gritten to paint the four views of Springside, commemorating Downing’s design for the estate. Gritten, an English landscape artist, moved to New York in 1850 to exhibit at the National Academy of Design after having shown at the Royal Academy of London. Versed in oil paint, water color, and photography, Gritten portrayed various scenes from his time in France, England, and Australia. Together, the four views he composed of Springside create a comprehensive portrait of the estate.

Yvonne Elet, Vassar Professor of Art History and Springside Board member, commented that, “Acquiring this fourth Gritten painting and reuniting the set provides a wonderful new opportunity for research about the representation of landscape in the mid-nineteenth century, and the history of Springside itself—much of which has been lost to arson, decay, or development. Having direct access to all four paintings will be a fantastic boon to my students and me, and to all students of Hudson Valley landscape.”

The four views of Springside were originally displayed together in Matthew Vassar’s city residence in downtown Poughkeepsie. However, after his death in 1868, three of the paintings were purchased by Karl Keiling, a caretaker and resident of Springside, separating the set, and later acquired for The Loeb by Thomas M. Evans, Jr., in honor of Tania Goss, class of 1959. Now, for the first time since Matthew Vassar’s lifetime, the four paintings are all under the same ownership. With generous support from the family of Georgia Potter Gosnell, class of 1951, and Elizabeth Gosnell Miller, class of 1984, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center recently acquired the final painting, Springside: South and West of Kitchen Garden and East Facade of Cottage. This newest acquisition overlooks the site from an elevated perspective, providing a view of the estate, the Hudson River, and the mountains to the west. With a softly lit pastel sky, this painting displays the pastoral beauty of the estate and the dynamic landscape that surrounds it. While Downing’s writings influenced the design of countless homes and gardens, because of his untimely death, Springside is one of his only extant projects. Therefore, the reunion of the four paintings of Springside not only provides a better understanding of Gritten’s vision of Springside, but also constitutes a more complete picture of one of Downing’s most salient designs.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that Vassar stands upon the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place despite being forcibly displaced by European colonization. Munsee Lenape peoples continue today as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, the Delaware Tribe and the Delaware Nation in Oklahoma, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario. This acknowledgment, however, is insufficient without our reckoning with the reality that every member of the Vassar community since 1861 has benefited from these Native peoples’ displacement, and it is hollow without our efforts to counter the effects of structures that have long enabled—and that still perpetuate—injustice against Indigenous Americans. To that end, we commit to build and sustain relationships with Native communities; to expand opportunities at Vassar for Native students, as well as Native faculty and other employees; and to collaborate with Native nations to know better the Indigenous peoples, past and present, who care for this land.