What's New

Hyde Park, 1856

Johann Hermann Carmiencke
American, born Germany
1810-1867

oil on canvas, 44.5 x 65.5 cm.
(17 ½ x 25 ¾ in.)

Museum purchase with funds provided through exchange agreement with Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Historical Association
VAMA 5021

 Johann Hermann Carmiencke's portrait of the Langdon house at Hyde Park as it appeared in 1856 documents an important chapter in the estate's two hundred year history. This scenic area on the banks of the Hudson River, carefully developed under five generations of owners, represents a layering of historical periods with an impressive continuity.

In 1847, the celebrated landscapist Andrew Jackson Downing admitted that "Hyde Park…has been justly celebrated as one of the finest specimens of the modern style of Landscape Gardening in America. Nature has, indeed, done much for this place as the grounds are finely varied, beautifully watered by a lively stream, and the views are inexpressibly striking from the neighborhood of the house itself, including, as they do, the noble Hudson for sixty miles in its course, through rich valleys and bold mountains." It was this house and the surrounding landscape that attracted Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt to the estate in 1895.

During their 45-year period of ownership, the last in which the estate was privately owned, the Vanderbilts initiated extensive work over the estate, yet they remained sensitive to the estate's long and important history, retaining many features of the landscape they had inherited from the Langdons.

Initially, the Vanderbilts intended to remodel the Langdon house, adding new wings to the north and south. Vanderbilt hired the firm McKim, Mead and White to carry out the renovations, but this very soon came to a halt when the house was discovered to have severe structural problems. Plans were then developed for an entirely new structure that retained the siting and general appearance of the Langdon house, including Mrs. Vanderbilt's favorite feature-the circular portico facing the river.

Carmiencke was born at Hamburg, Germany in 1810 and received his formal training at both Dresden and Copenhagen. Travelling as an artist throughout Sweden, Bavaria, and Italy, he established his reputation as a landscape painter and was appointed court painter to Christian VIII in 1846. He held that post until 1851 when he left Europe for New York. Carmiencke was a member of the Academy of Brooklyn exhibiting works frequently at the National Academy, Pennsylvania Academy, and Maryland Historical Society. He is remembered as one of the Hudson River School of painters. Several other landscapes of Hyde Park and the surrounding area by Carmiencke survive in public and private collections. He died at New York in 1867.