Harriet Cany Peale’s "Kaaterskill Clove," 1858

The New Britain Museum of American Art is thrilled to announce the acquisition of Harriet Cany Peale’s Kaaterskill Clove, 1858, made possible through a generous multiyear grant from the Robert C. Vance Foundation.

“Harriet Cany Peale’s Kaaterskill Clove is an extraordinary picture and we are thrilled it has found a home here at the NBMAA. Not only is it skillfully rendered, but the detail is such that some features of the landscape are still identifiable in photos of the site today,” says Stephanie Mayer Heydt, Director of Collections and Exhibitions. “The acquisition is also a landmark purchase for the Museum—as our first major landscape painting by a woman artist, Kaaterskill Clove offers a powerful complement to our existing strength in American landscape painting. It speaks directly to our mission to expand and diversify the collection in meaningful ways.”

Born in Philadelphia, Harriet Cany Peale began creating art before studying under Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), becoming his second wife in 1840. Perhaps her most celebrated work, and one that has been often reproduced, is her Kaaterskill Clove. The work depicts the rocky Kaaterskill creek, which runs through the eastern Catskill Mountains in New York State. Throughout the 19th century, the Clove—which describes a valley or gorge—was a favorite spot for American landscape artists following the popularization of the region. Many Americans came to know the Catskills first through the wildly successful Leatherstocking Tales by the writer James Fenimore Cooper, which included his novels The Pioneers (1823) and The Last of the Mohicans (1826). Inspired by Cooper, his friend, the painter Thomas Cole, began to feature the Catskill region in his own work. Cole’s first notable success with the subject was a monumental work depicting Kaaterskill Falls—a landmark not far from the Clove. Cole produced several more paintings of the area, including the beloved painting in the NBMAA’s collection, The Clove, Catskills, 1827, which is on view next to Peale’s Kaaterskill Clove.

Peale would have been familiar with Cole's work, and her own painting of the Clove is almost certainly an homage to it. Although the vantage point differs—Peale paints from down in the valley, whereas Cole's view is higher up—the same mountain profile features prominently in each along the left side of the composition.

“We are profoundly grateful to the Vance Foundation for their generous support, which made this acquisition possible,” says Brett Abbott, Executive Director and CEO. “Their commitment allows us to honor underrecognized artists like Peale and ensure their important contributions to American art are preserved and celebrated for generations to come.”

The NBMAA’s strength in 19^th-century American landscape painting is anchored by artists such as Thomas Cole and the next generation of painters including Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and Connecticut’s own Frederic Edwin Church. To further amplify this canonical collection, the NBMAA has sought opportunities to expand upon the stories that the Museum can tell through landscape. In 2022, the Vance Foundation stepped up with a generous gift in support of the acquisition of a major work by Robert Duncanson, among the few African American landscape painters active in the 19^th century.

In addition, the Museum has looked to exhibition opportunities to further develop a fuller understanding around who participated, historically, in painting the American landscape. In 2023, the NBMAA’s presentation of the exhibition Women Reframe American Landscape organized by the Thomas Cole National Site, offered a phenomenal opportunity to illuminate the artistic contributions and perspectives of women artists practicing across 200 years of American history—artists who were actively showing and selling during their lifetimes but fell into obscurity, and whose invaluable contributions to American art are finally receiving overdue appreciation. Although Peale was not among the women represented in this exhibition, her Kaaterskill Clove represents not only excellence in the field of American landscape painting but also serves as a legacy for the NBMAA’s embrace of the Women Reframe exhibition and its project to reclaim the significant role women played in the history of American art.

In celebration of this acquisition, the NBMAA will host Dr. Nancy Siegel, Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at Towson University and a specialist on the role of women artists in the sphere of American landscape painting, for a public lecture. The talk, titled “At Kaaterskill Clove: The Artistic and Business Acumen of Harriet Cany Peale,” will be held in the NBMAA Stanley Works Center at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 21, 2025. Click here to register.