John Charles Van Dyke

For other people named John Van Dyke, see John Van Dyke (disambiguation).

John Charles Van Dyke (1861–1931) was an American art historian and critic. He was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, 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.

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). 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.

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.

Van Dyke 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

• How to Judge a Picture (1888)
• Art for Art's Sake (1893)
• A History of Painting (1894; new edition, 1915)
• Nature for its Own Sake (1898; fourth edition, 1906)
• OCLC 4733802 With J. Smeaton Chase (photographs)
• Opal Sea: Continued Studies in Impressions and Appearances (1906)
• Studies in Pictures (1907)
• The Mountain (1916)
• Edited by Peter Wild
  • Reviewed by: Ingham, Zita (March 22, 1995). "The Autobiography of John C. Van Dyke: A Personal Narrative of American Life, 1861–1931". Nineteenth-Century Prose. Retrieved January 8, 2013 from HighBeam Research

External links

• Works by John Charles Van Dyke at Project Gutenberg
• Works by John Charles Van Dyke at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)