John Charles Van Dyke

{{Short description|American art historian, critic, and writer (1856–1932)}}

{{Similar names|John Van Dyke (disambiguation){{!}}John Van Dyke}}

{{Infobox person

| name = John Charles Van Dyke

| image = John Charles Van Dyke (1856–1932).png

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1856|04|21}}

| birth_place = New Brunswick, New Jersey

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1932|12|05|1856|04|21}}

| death_place = New York, New York

| burial_place =

| occupation = Art historian, critic, nature writer

| awards =

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| children =

| education = Columbia University

| signature = Signature of John Charles Van Dyke (1856–1932).png

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John Charles Van Dyke (1856–1932) was an American art historian, critic, and nature writer.

Biography

John Charles Van Dyke was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey on April 21, 1856. He studied at Columbia, and for many years in Europe. He was admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1877, but never practiced law.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QiDkH9ITPUcC&pg=PA32 |title=Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey |volume=V |publisher=The American Historical Society |place=New York City |pages=32–35 |date=1923 |access-date=2023-07-05 |via=Google Books |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705173333/https://books.google.com/books?id=QiDkH9ITPUcC&pg=PA32 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-death-claims-j-c/127669073/ |title=Death Claims J. C. Van Dyke |newspaper=Atlantic City Press |page=2 |agency=AP |place=New York |date=1932-12-05 |publication-date=1932-12-06 |access-date=2023-07-05 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705173333/https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-death-claims-j-c/127669073/ |url-status=live }}

In 1878, Van Dyke was appointed the librarian of the Gardner Sage Library at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and in 1891 as a professor of art history at Rutgers College (now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey).{{cite journal|title=Van Dyke, John Charles|journal=The International Who's Who in the World|year=1912|page= 1043|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-wRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1043}}McCormick, Richard P. Rutgers: A Bicentennial History. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1966), p. 129. With his appointment, the Rutgers president's residence was converted to classroom and studio space for the college's Department of Fine Arts. He was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1908.[http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_deceased.php American Academy of Arts and Letters: Deceased Members] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726004624/http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_deceased.php |date=July 26, 2011}}

Van Dyke wrote a series of critical guide books: New Guides to Old Masters. He edited Modern French Masters (1896); Old Dutch and Flemish Masters (1901); Old English Masters; and a series of histories covering the history of art in America.

In 1901, he published The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances. On its influence, historian Peter Wild wrote,

{{Quote|largely through The Desert the nation "discovered" the Southwest, its Indians, strange plants, and exotic animals. Discovered, too, the first and still the best book to praise the arid lands. After nearly a century Van Dyke remains the grandfather of almost all American desert writers.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxjqAAAAMAAJ&q=%22discovered%20the%20southwest%22 |last1=Van Dyke |first1=John |title=The Autobiography of John C. Van Dyke |date=1993 |publisher=The University of Utah Press |location=Salt Lake City |chapter=Editor's Introduction |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Wild |editor-link=Peter Wild |page=xvii |isbn=9780874803921 |access-date=2023-07-05 |via=Google Books |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705173330/https://books.google.com/books?id=LxjqAAAAMAAJ&q=%22discovered%20the%20southwest%22 |url-status=live }}}}

Van Dyke died at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan on December 5, 1932.

He was the son of Judge John Van Dyke, and great grandson of John Honeyman, a spy for George Washington who played a critical role at the battle of Trenton. He was also the uncle of film director W.S. Van Dyke.

Publications

Books and How to Use Them (1883)
How to Judge a Picture (1888)
Art for Art's Sake (1893)
[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18900 A History of Painting] (1894; new edition, 1915)
Rembrandt and his school; a critical study of the master and his pupils with a new assignment of their pictures (1923)
The Meadows: Familiar Studies of the Commonplace (1926)
Nature for its Own Sake (1898; fourth edition, 1906)
{{cite book|title=The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances|orig-year=1903|year=1918|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|location=New York City|pages=233|oclc=1841296}} {{OCLC|4733802}} With J. Smeaton Chase (photographs – 1918 ed.) (1980 ed. Gibbs M. Smith, Inc. / Peregrine Smith Books: Salt Lake City, xxvii + 233|) ({{ISBN|0-87905-073-X}}) ([https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73778 Gutenberg])
[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72598 The meaning of pictures] (1903)
The Opal Sea: Continued Studies in Impressions and Appearances (1906)
Studies in Pictures (1907)
The Money God (1908) ({{ISBN|0-46931-690-X}})
The Raritan: Notes on a River and a Family (1915)
The Mountain (1916)
[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73811 American Painting and its Tradition] (1919)
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado (1920)
The Open Spaces: Incidents of Nights and Days under the Blue Sky (1922)
In the West Indies (1932)
{{cite book|title=The Autobiography of John C. Van Dyke: A Personal Narrative of American Life, 1861–1931|year=1993|location=Salt Lake City|publisher=University of Utah Press|isbn=978-0874803921|pages=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofj00vand/page/320 320]|oclc=28025404|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofj00vand/page/320}} Edited by Peter Wild
Reviewed by: Ingham, Zita (March 22, 1995). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140608083940/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-188966729.html "The Autobiography of John C. Van Dyke: A Personal Narrative of American Life, 1861–1931"]. Nineteenth-Century Prose