  About the Artwork
  
  
  Quidor was especially fond of painting literary subjects, particularly those from American writers. In this canvas he has adapted an aspect of Diedrich Knickerbocker's (Washington Irving) satirical book History of New York. The fictional narrative tells the story of how early Dutch colonists lived on the coast of New Jersey in the village of Communipaw. Their happy life was disrupted by a nearly disastrous encounter with the British. In the scene depicted, Olaffe Van Kortlandt picks up a conch shell and blows it, signaling the colonists to follow him to the boats in search of a new place to live. After some harrowing experiences on the high seas, the group of explorers led by Van Kortlandt sent for their families and belongings and settled on Manhattan Island.
  
  
  Title
  Embarkation from Communipaw
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1861
  
  Artist
  John Quidor
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1801-1881
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 27 × 34 1/4 inches (68.6 × 87 cm)
  Framed: 35 × 43 × 4 5/8 inches (88.9 × 109.2 × 11.7 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  62.176
  
  
  Copyright
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