Village Tavern
Village Tavern
Artist
John Lewis Krimmel
American, 1786-1821
Date1813-1814
DimensionsPainting: 17 × 22 1/2 in. (43.2 × 57.2 cm)
Frame: 23 3/4 × 29 1/8 × 2 3/4 in. (60.3 × 74 × 7 cm)
Frame: 23 3/4 × 29 1/8 × 2 3/4 in. (60.3 × 74 × 7 cm)
MediumOil on canvas
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number
1954.13
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 29
Collections
Published ReferencesNaeve, M., "John Lewis Krimmel: His Life, His Art and His Circle," unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1955, pp. 40-1, 45, 126-29, pl. IV (as A Village Tavern - Arrival of the Mail with News of Peace, 1815).
- Paintings
Rogers, Millard F., Jr., "Artists of a New Nation," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 2, no. 2, Autumn, 1959, p. 10, repr. p. 11.
Pierson, William H., Jr., and Martha Davidson, eds., Arts of the United States: A Pictorial Survey, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1960, no. 2759.
Davidson, Marshall, The American Heritage History of American Antiques from the Revolution to the Civil War, New York, 1968, repr. p. 327, fig. 434.
Flexner, J., Nineteenth Century American Painting, New York, 1970, repr. p. 45.
Peterson, Harold L., Americans at Home, New York, 1971, pl. 190, repr.
Baigell, Matthew, A History of American Painting, New York, 1971, p. 102, repr. ill. 5-14, p. 103.
The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art, Waukesha, WI, 1972, repr. p. 59.
Williams, H., Mirror to the American Past, Greenwich, CT, 1973, p. 43, fig. 24.
Montgomery, C., A History of American Pewter, New York and Washington, 1973, figs. 1-3.
The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974, no. 70, repr. (col.).
Williams, Herman Warner, Jr., "Nineteenth-Century American Genre Painting," Antiques, vol. CV, no. 2, Feb. 1974, p. 377, repr.
Hutson, Martha, "American Narrative Painting, The Painter's America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910," American Art Review, vol. 1, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 1974, repr. (col.) p. 104.
America Through the Eyes of German Immigrant Painters, Boston, Goethe Institute, 1975, repr. p. 13.
Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1977, no. 66, repr.
"Fun Was Where You Found It," The Herald (Dearborn (MI), Edison Institute), vol 7, no. 2, Spring 1978, repr. p. 15.
Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 71-2, pl. 15.
Life in 19th Century America, Evanston, IL, Terra Museum of American Art, 1981, no. 4, p. 5, repr. p. 3.
Hills, Patricia, "Images of Rural America...," in The Rural Vision: France and America in the Late Nineteenth Century, Omaha, 1987, p. 66, fig. 40.
Naeve, Milo M., John Lewis Krimmel, Newark, NJ, 1987, p. 74, repr. p. 73.
American Heritage, vol. 39, no. 6, Sept./Oct. 1988, frontispiece (col.) p. 4.
National Geographic Society, Historical Atlas of the United States, Washington, D.C. 1988, p. 206, repr. (col.).
Oedel, William T., "Krimmel at the Crossroads," Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 23, no. 4, Winter 1988, p. 278, repr.
Tice, Patricia M., Altered States: Alcohol and Other Drugs in America, Rochester, N.Y., The Strong Museum, 1992, repr. (col.) p. 28.
McNeely, Gina, "Dranesville Tavern," Virginia Cavalcade, vol. 43, no. 2, Autumn 1993, p. 80, repr. (col.).
Discovering America's Past: Customs, Legends, History, and Lore of Our Great Nations, Pleasantville, 1993, repr. p. 66 (col.).
Harding, Anneliese, John Lewis Krimmel, Winterthur, DE, 1994, pp. 59-65, 72, 90, 111, 222, 231, 232, 243, 244, 248, fig. 105 (col.) p. 64 [as Interior of an American Inn].
Otter, William, History of My Own Times, Ithaca, NY, 1995, fig. 5, p. 115.
Raitz, Karl, ed., The National Road, Baltimore, 1996, p. 75, repr.
Southgate, M. Therese, "The Cover," Journal of the American Association, v. 276, no. 23, Dec. 18, 1996, p. 1855, repr. (col.) on cover.
John, Richard R. and Thomas C. Leonard, "The Illusion of the Ordinary: John Lewis Krimmel's Village Tavern and the Democratization of Public Life i nthe Early Republic," Pennsylvania History, vol. 65, no. 1, Winter 1998, pp. [87]-94, repr. [article in VF].
Moore, Lucinda, "Capturing America's Fight for Freedom," Smithsonian, vol. 31, no. 4, July, 2000, p. 47.
"Letters to the Editor: The Patriot," Smithsonian, vol. 31, no. 6, Sept., 2000, p. 14, repr.(col.).
Brewster, Priscilla J., From Fireplace to Cookstove: Technology and the Domestic Ideal in America, Syracuse, 2000, p. 55, fig. 3.7.
Taylor, Bradley L., "The Effect of Surrogation on Viewer Response to Expressional Qualities in Works of Art," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2001, p. 78, pl. G2, p. 175.
Dorsey, Bruce, Reforming Men and Women: Gender in the Antebellum City, Ithaca, Cornell, 2002, p. 94, fig. 5, p. 95.
Ryan, Thomas R., ed., The Worlds of Jacob Eichholtz: Portrait Painter of the Early Republic, Lancaster, PA, Lancaster County Historical Society, 2003, repr. (col.) p. 75.
Christie's (NY), Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture, New York [sale], Nov. 30, 2006, p. 132.
Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 2006, pp. 131-132, fig. 53.2 (col.), p. 132.
Clark, Carol, Charles Deas and 1840s America, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009, pp. 142-145, 146, fig. 4.8 (col.) p. 142, fig. 4.10, (det.) (col.) p. 145.
Gross, Robert A. and Mary Kelley, eds., A History of the Book in America, volume 2: Print, Culture, and Society in the New Nation, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2010, p 218-219, repr. p. 219., fig. 315.
Andrews, Jeanmarie, "America Runs on Rum," Early American Life, vol. XLI, no. 5, Oct. 2010, repr. (col.) p. 46, repr. (det.) p. 72.
Brückner, Martin, The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860 Williamsburg, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2017, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2017, pp. 147, 150, 312, p. 149. fig. 59.
DiGirolamo, Vincent, Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys, New York, New York, Oxford Univeristy Press, 2019, repr. (col). color plate 1.
Crevato-Selvaggi, Bruno and Raffaella Gerola, Storia Postale: Sguardi multidisciplinari, sguardi diacronici (Postal History: Multidisciplinary and Diachronic Perspectives), Instituto di studi storici postali "Aldo Cecchi" onlus, 2020, p.117, fig. 1 (col.)
Moss, Robert F., "From Tavern to Hotel: Commercial Lodging, Dining, and Drinking in early American," Early American Life, Mackinaw City, June 2022, repr. (col.) p. 62.
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Columbian Society of Artists and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1814, no. 234 (as Village Tavern).New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910, 1974, no. 70.
Boston, Goethe Institute, America Through the Eyes of German Immigrant Painters, 1975.
Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, 1977, no. 66.
Evanston, IL, Terra Museum of American Art, Life in 19th Century America, 1981, no. 4.
Berlin, Deutsches Historisches Museum, ViceVersa: deutsche Maler in Amerika, amerikanische Maler in Deutschland 1813-1913, 1996, no. 9.
Label TextThe tavern in early 19th-century America, with its mix of workmen and gentlemen merchants, was often the public heart of a village. But taverns were not only drinking establishments, they were gathering places where the news of the day was received and discussed (many of the major events in the founding of the nation—including the Revolutionary War itself—were conceived and planned in taverns). John Lewis Krimmel has provided clues to what has excited the group here: hanging on the wall are ship prints and a map of the Great Lakes region, where much of the War of 1812 (1812–15) was fought. It seems probable that the men are excited by good news from the field of battle. The gestures and glances of the three figures in the center reveal a different drama. What do you think the woman and child are doing in the tavern, where they would not normally venture? Krimmel often included a moral message in his scenes of everyday life, which made his images even more appealing to his middleclass patrons.Membership
Become a TMA member today
Support TMA
Help support the TMA mission