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We recently moved a large portion of the KHS archives into our new headquarters at Edgehill. There are some fascinating items to investigate. One thing that caught my eye was this painting:
It is obviously in terrible shape, which is too bad. But it depicts a scene rarely seen in color. That is a view looking northeast toward Spuyten Duyvil Hill with the Spuyten Duyvil train station in the foreground and the old Villa Rosa Bonheur building on the upper right.
The painting is unsigned. The car looks to be a 1920 to 1930s era vehicle:
Rather than looking at an oncoming train, the folks at the station seem to be looking and gesturing toward the woods or the Villa Rosa Bonheur…
And there is definitely something happening in the woods beyond the station (although I am struggling to figure out what exactly). It makes me think that this painting is not merely a landscape but might be depicting a specific event:
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https://www.6sqft.com/1924-cliffside-riverdale-castle-cottage-has-magical-river-views-a-broadway-pedigree-and-a-2-6m-ask/ Villa Rosa Bonheur article & images
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I have always believed it was painted by Charlotte Livingston ( B 1898) who also was a long time trustee of KHS. She lived her life in Kingsbridge and married to Francis vander veer Kughler who was a professional artist.
It looks to me as if the women in yellow dress running down to greet the man in brown suit with grey hat. It is the early 20th C. painting. Today she would likely be chasing someone who just stole her bag.
The car could date the painting if someone can put a date as to the style.
Most of the people look to be wearing face masks which would fit for the flu pandemic. 1918-1919 but the car is not of that period.
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Thanks to all! My son, Luke (who did volunteer work for KHS when he was in high school), lived in the Villa Rosa Bonheur from 2014 until it was sold. We loved it — we had a duplex, so that my son had the second floor to himself. It was in pretty bad shape at the end — the last winter, when most of the other tenants had moved out, the oil furnace was leaking so many fumes (through a patchwork of duct tape on the furnace’s seams) that we told the new owner to shut it down and buy us electric heaters. The new owner directed us to a web site with detailed floor plans for renovating the building, but they were odd — the plans gave our apartment an extra balcony leaving the bigger apartment next door without a balcony, which didn’t seem to make any sense (and the owner didn’t really seem to know what was in the plans). Then, of course, they just tore down the building anyway. I was sorry to see it go, but I’m glad that so many people get to enjoy the views (and the two-minute walk to the train platform) the new building, the Henry.
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