Arkell Museum

The Arkell Museum is a museum in Canajoharie, New York that has an extensive collection of American paintings, primarily from 1860–1940, as well as historical exhibits about the history of the Mohawk River Valley and of the Beech-Nut babyfood company. Founded in 1924, the museum was originally built to house the various 19th century paintings collected by Bartlett Arkell, then the town's leading industrialist. Susan Finch has written of the museum, "The institution has evolved into more than just an art gallery with a library attached, but an art gallery with a small town attached. The roster of American painters exhibited here is astounding and completely out of scale with what you would expect from a Thruway exit between Albany and Utica."^[1]

Arkell acquired and donated some of the finest American paintings he came across. He incorporated several elements from different art museums that he visited in Europe and the United States into this museum. These were the European paintings Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Prince George Gallery at the Walker Art Museum in Liverpool, England and the gallery that housed "The Night Watch" at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Many of the paintings on display reflect Arkell's personal taste. Growing up in Canajoharie, landscapes of rural New York State and the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers are what Arkell found intriguing as well as familiar as they can be seen hanging on the museum walls.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to landscapes of New York, Arkell also incorporated his love for New England and European countries like France and England into his collection by acquiring landscapes of these areas.

The collection also includes many paintings by Winslow Homer, one of Arkell's favorite artists, Childe Hassam, and the Vermont Regionalists. American Impressionist Painters and American Watercolor Painting also fill the museum. As with many collections founded prior to World War II, it also abounds in portraits of famous men and of the type of woman he found attractive, women with dark hair and eyes. All three of his wives had such hair and eye color.

This decorative arts collection derived from Arkell's desire to acquire objects of good taste such as furniture, sculpture, glass and pottery to place in the museum and library.

References

^ Finch, Susan (2010). Upstate New York Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places. Globe Pequot. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7627-5945-3.

External links

"The Arkell Museum - Canajoharie, New York". The Arkell Museum. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

42°54′27.0″N 074°34′18.9″W / 42.907500°N 74.571917°W / 42.907500; -74.571917

[Finch-1] Finch, Susan (2010). Upstate New York Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places. Globe Pequot. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7627-5945-3.

[1]

References

Further reading

External links