Everything Has a Story: Reflections on the Collection
Every artwork has a story to tell—or to inspire. Whether in the narrative depicted by the artist, the history behind its making, or the memories and imagined worlds it evokes, each work in the HRM collection contains vivid stories from a rich array of viewpoints and experiences.
In Everything Has a Story, discover iconic highlights in conversation with recent acquisitions, hidden gems, and significant loans that rotate periodically. Some artworks reveal intimate stories personal to the artist. After seeing flamenco dancer Nunez de Polanco perform, Anna Walinska offered to paint his portrait in exchange for lessons. She found herself dancing with him onstage at a benefit concert, which she commemorated in the painting Self-Portrait: Flamenco. In The Curvey II, Winfred Rembert reached past teenage experiences of racism and violence to delve deep into childhood memories to recall the joy of swimming with friends in a rural Georgia river. Other works to artists’ individual ambitions or the issues of their day. Sylvia Sleigh composed a monumental painting of figures in a landscape, inspired by and competing with male artists of the past. And Paul Manship’s fleet-footed Diana takes on new poignance as an emblem of American women’s increased participation in sports in the early twentieth century.
So, would you like to hear a good story? From paintings and sculptures to costumes and baseball cards, these artists, past and present, hold up mirrors to our history and windows into the future.
Exhibitions are made possible by assistance provided by the County of Westchester.
Select works in this exhibition are generously lent by Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, as part of the Art Bridges’ Collection Loan Partnership initiative and also by Art Bridges.
Featured Artists
Gifford Beal • Elizabeth Wilson Beals • Oscar Carlson • Joseph Cornell • Jasper Francis Cropsey • Julian O. Davidson • Alice M. Dunstan • Erika Harrsch • Winslow Homer • Anna Hyatt Huntington • George Inness • Titus Tyrone Kaphar • Daniel Ridgway Knight • William McCloskey • Catherine Latson • Paul Manship • Henri Matisse • Richard Mayhew • Barbara Morgan • Mark O’Banks • Georgia O’Keeffe • Fairfield Porter • Hiram Powers • Winfred Rembert • Frederic Remington • John W. Rhoden • Severin Roesen • George Segal • Sylvia Sleigh • Mickalene Thomas • Rigoberto Torres • Anna Walinska • Andy Warhol • George Wright • Robert Zakanitch
Selected objects
Fairfield Porter (American, 1907–1975). October Interior, 1963. Oil on canvas. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (2010.89). Photo: Dwight Primiano.
George Wright (American, 1850–1916). A Terrible Bore, 1899. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of William H. and Abigail Booth Gerdts, 2004 (2004.01).
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987). Eggs, 1982. Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. Private collection. © 2023 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Severin Roesen (American, b. Prussia, ca. 1815–ca. 1872). Flowers in a Glass Bowl, ca. 1850–70. Oil on canvas. On extended loan from Shelley and Felice Bergman. Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Richard Mayhew (American, 1924–2024). Friday, 1982. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Dr. Thomas A. Mathews, 1987 (87.16.1). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
George Inness (American, 1825–1894). In the Woods, early 1880s. Oil on board. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Martucci, 1991 (91.1.1). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Photographer once known. Yonkers Baseball Team at the Westchester County High School Championship, 1898. Albumen photograph, mounted. Collection of the Hudson River Museum (2015.0.099).
Winfred Rembert (American, 1945–2021). The Curvey II, 2014. Dye on carved and tooled leather. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Jan and Warren Adelson, 2020 (2020.11). © Winfred Rembert. Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Sylvia Sleigh (American, b. Wales, 1916–2010). Invitation to a Voyage: The Hudson River at Fishkill, 1979–1999. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the artist, 2006 (2006.03.01).
Gifford Beal (American, 1879–1956). Morning Ride, ca. 1920–30. Oil on panel. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of The Estate of Gifford Beal, Courtesy of Kraushaar Galleries, New York, 2015 (2015.04.06).
Frederic Remington (American, 1861–1909). Indians Simulating Buffalo, 1908. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Toledo Museum of Art. Gift of Florence Scott Libbey (1912.1).
Paul Manship (American, 1885–1966). Diana, 1925. Bronze. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the City of Yonkers, 1948 (48.17.1). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, 1823–1900). Starrucca Viaduct, Pennsylvania, 1865. Oil on canvas. Toledo Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott (PL.2023.4.3).
Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). Banana Blossom, 1934. Charcoal on paper. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Bequest of Carl E. Hiller, 1992 (92.1.1). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY.
Robert Zakanitch (American, b. 1935). Rococo Revisited, 2008. From the A Garden of Ordinary Miracles series. Gouache on paper diptych. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the artist, 2017 (2017.08). © Robert Zakanitch.
William J. McCloskey (American, 1859–1941). Feeding Dolly (If You Don’t Eat it, I’ll Give it to Doggie), 1890. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Mrs. Lillie H. Seaman, 1925 (25.97). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Company, Yonkers. Mimosa Rug, 1951. Wool (edition 396/500). Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Museum Purchase, 1970 (70.48).
Joseph Cornell (American, 1903–1972). Untitled (Hôtel de l’Etoil), ca. 1958–62. Mixed media collage construction. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the C & B Foundation, 1975 (75.22.2). © The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY.
Mark O’Banks (American, 1956–2002). Nybylwyck Hall, 1990–2000. Mixed media. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Patrick Ladden, 2006 (2006.02). © Mark O’Banks. Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Hiram Powers (American, 1805–1873). Eve Disconsolate, 1871. Marble. Gift of the Berol Family in Memory of Mrs. Gella Berolzheimer, 1951 (51.18).
Catherine Latson (American, b. 1960). Birch Corset, 2016. Birch veneer, Tapioca root, and vintage remnants. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of the artist, 2023 (2023.10.1). © Catherine Latson.
Anna Walinska (American, b. England, 1906–1997). Self-Portrait: Flamenco, 1939. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Rosina Rubin, 2020 (2020.12). © Atelier Anna Walinska.
Barbara Morgan (American, 1900–1992). Martha Graham in Letter to the World (Kick), 1940. Photograph. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Gift of Douglas and Liliane Morgan, 1987 (87.13.10). Barbara and Willard Morgan photographs and papers, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
George Segal (American, 1924–2000). Man Leaning Against a Wall of Doors, 1968. Wood, metal, and plaster. Gift of Geigy Pharmaceuticals, Division of Geigy Chemical Corporation, 1969 (69.14a-g). © The George and Helen Segal Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY.
Julian O. Davidson (American, 1853–1894). The Hudson River from the Tappan Zee, 1871. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Hudson River Museum. Museum Purchase, 1959 (59.24). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
