Knoedler gallery

DEFINITION

Established in 1852 by Michael Knoedler, it was a successor company to Goupil and Company, which had been established in 1848, in New York City as the first American art gallery. Goupil was a French publishing company that focused much of their market on selling to Americans, and their early success was lithographs of "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze. Knoedler had an established reputation in New York, and after the gallery had his name, continued to have the Goupil financial backing. However, he correctly perceived that in order to be an American gallery he needed to handle American art. As a result the subject of George Washington commanded much of the attention of the Knoedler Gallery including copies of Washington portraits by Gilbert Stuart as well as the work by Leutze. Source: DeCourcy E. McIntosh, 'Fair and Square', "The Magazine Antiques", February 2006, 69-73