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Bryan Gallery of Christian Art print collection

Call Number

PR 143

Date

circa 1525-circa 1870, inclusive

Creator

Bryan, Thomas Jefferson, 1800?-1870

Extent

20 folder(s) in 2 drawers.

Language of Materials

The languages used on documents in the collection are English, French, and Italian.

Abstract

Prints, photographs, and one drawing, from the Bryan Gallery of Christian Art, assembled by Thomas Jefferson Bryan and given to the New-York Historical Society in 1867. All 158 prints are European works, mainly of religious subjects, but including some portraits, landscapes, and allegorical scenes. Portraits include some from a set of portraits of the six wives of Henry VIII, and several self-portraits, mainly by Italian artists. Artists represented include: David Teniers, Rubens, Van Dyck, Watteau, Dürer, Titian, Philips Wouwerman, Nicolas Lancret, Aelbert Cuyp, Holbein, and Guido Reni. Engravers represented include Francesco Bartolozzi, Schelte Bolswert, Cornelis Cort, Christoffel Jegher, Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, Jean Moyreau, William Sharp, Cornelis Vermeulen, and Lucas Emil Vorsterman. The prints include etchings, engravings, stipple engravings, and mezzotints. The albumen photographs show the Alhambra in Spain, and paintings in Perugia, Italy. The collection also contains one amateur crayon or pastel drawing, and two photomechanical reproductions (one in color) of engravings.

Biographical note

Thomas Jefferson Bryan was the first major American collector and connoisseur of European paintings. He was born in Philadelphia in 1802. In 1852, after spending twenty years in Europe, he returned to New York and opened the Gallery of Christian Art, which he operated out of his residence on Broadway. As his collection grew, he sought a more permanent home for it, and arranged its transfer to the New-York Historical Society in 1867. Bryan continued to add to the collection until his death in 1870.

Arrangement

The collection is organized in three series:

Series I.
Prints, before 1528-1817, undated
Series II.
Photographs, undated
Series III.
Other items, undated

Items are sorted by the numbers they were assigned on accession.

Scope and Contents

The Bryan Gallery of Christian Art Print Collection spans the period circa 1525–circa 1870 and primarily contains European prints. The collection is organized in three series: Prints, Photographs, and Other Items.

Series I. Prints, before 1528-1817, undated, contains 158 prints. All are European works, and include Italian, Flemish, French, Dutch, and some English works. Most of the prints are engravings or etchings, and only a few have color. They are mainly of religious subjects, or are portraits, landscapes, or allegorical scenes. Many of the portraits are self-portraits by artists, primarily Italian. Several others are from a set of portraits of the six wives of Henry VIII. Prints number nine and ten are both colored stipple prints from a set of illustrations for Milton's Paradise Lost engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi after Thomas Stotherd. Duplicate copies exist of a few prints.

Series II. Photographs, undated, contains two groups of albumen photographs showing paintings in Perugia, Italy, and the Alhambra in Spain. The seven photographs of the Alhambra are 8 by 10 inches. The twenty-three photographs of paintings are 5 x 7 inches and smaller.

Series III. Other items, undated, contains one amateur crayon or pastel drawing and two photomechanical reproductions, one in color, of engravings.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, contact the Print Room Librarian at printroom@nyhistory.org.

Use Restrictions

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: Bryan Gallery of Christian Art Print Collection, PR-143, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Thomas Jefferson Bryan, April 2, 1867. Bryan added material to the collection until his death in 1870.

Related Materials

Documentation related to the original Bryan collection and its acquisition by N-YHS can be found in the institutional archives; see Guide to the New-York Historical Society Bequests, Gifts and Related Matters Record Group.

Much of the Bryan collection was deaccessioned in the 1970s–1990s. For details on its scope, see Richard Grant White, Companion to the Bryan Gallery of Christian Art: Containing Critical Descriptions of the Pictures, and Biographical Sketches of the Painters (1853).

Collection processed by

Jenny Gotwals (2002); migrated to ArchivesSpace by Joseph Ditta (2020).

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:46:27 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

This collection was removed from the Graphic Arts File (PR 022) and inventoried by Jenny Gotwals in May 2002. Joseph Ditta migrated her WORD document finding aid to ArchivesSpace in May 2020.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024