December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
Oil on panel, 27 x 21 ¾ inches, within original, gilt composition frame. Christopher Van Deventer (1788-1838) was son of a successful New York merchant and speculator. He attended Williams College and was the 46th graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received a commission as lieutenant of artillery on 9 January 1809, serving in that capacity at the New York harbor defenses, including Fort Columbus, until 1812. Appointed Major and Deputy Quartermaster General on 26 March 1813, he was captured while attempting to man a cannon during the British surprise attack on the American advance column at Stoney Creek on 6 June 1813. Sent into captivity at Quebec, he escaped in December but was later recaptured and put into solitary confinement until the end of the war. After his release he became Assistant Adjutant General and also aide de camp to Brigadier General Joseph Gardner Swift. Van Deventer resigned from the army on 30 August 1816 to become Chief Clerk of the War Department under Secretary John C. Calhoun. Van Deventer died in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., on April 22, 1838. His extensive papers are now at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. William Dunlap, the noted artist and playwright, painted this portrait of Major Van Deventer (a close friend) just before he departed New York City for the Niagara frontier in 1813. Dunlap did another portrait (whereabouts unknown) of him after he became Chief Clerk of the War Department, while visiting him in Washington, DC in the 1820s. PROVENANCE: by descent in the Van Deventer family until 2011, whence acquired. CONDITION: Very good condition, both painting and its original frame; the wood panel has a crack running down approximately 11 inches from top in upper right, which has been stabilized in conservation; examination under UV light reveal moderate retouching in area of crack and a few scattered, small spots in the background. The 2006 conservation report accompanies the painting.