Following the Trail of Jan Van Empel
Paintings, Newspapers, Archives and the Reconstruction of a Forgotten Artist
Enhanced vintage photograph believed to depict Jan Van Empel (1880-1931). Found on the original backing of the painting Old Fort Point, the photograph was preserved beneath the handwritten notation “VAN EMPLE” (sic) and “THE ARTIST” and remains an important part of the work’s provenance. Evidence suggests the image dates to circa 1928, during the artist’s Ontario exhibition period.
Jan Van Empel (1880–1931) was a Dutch-born, American-trained painter whose travels carried him from the art circles of New York and the Whitney Studio Club to Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, Quebec, New England, Texas, and Mexico. Long remembered primarily as an Alaskan painter, contemporary evidence increasingly reveals a broader and more ambitious career rooted in the North American art world.
One of the most surprising discoveries to emerge from this research is that Van Empel appears to have been far more American than Dutch in his artistic development. Although born in Amsterdam and often promoted as a Dutch painter, contemporary sources described him as a “Dutch-American painter”, while Jean Palardy later referred to him simply as an “American painter.” Trained under Robert Henri and Romain Kryzanowski and active in the New York art world before his Alaska years, Van Empel’s early work and artistic associations suggest a close affinity with the tradition of American realism and the artists surrounding the Ashcan School rather than any specifically Dutch artistic movement.
A pupil of Robert Henri and Romain Kryzanowski, Van Empel exhibited in New York, Detroit, Baltimore, Seattle, Montreal, Oshawa, and Philadelphia. He was associated with the Whitney Studio Club, was the subject of a charcoal portrait by Edward Hopper, and later taught the young Quebec artist Jean Palardy in the Saguenay.
The following chronology has been reconstructed from contemporary newspapers, exhibition catalogues, museum records, archival sources, and surviving paintings.
Emerging Phases of His Career
Early New York, Staten Island & Michigan Period (1914–1923)
- Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences exhibitions (1914)
- Perine House, Staten Island (c. 1914)
- Staten Island landscapes and village scenes
- Detroit Institute of Arts / Scarab Club exhibition (1919)
- From My Window
- Moonlight and Alley
- Tuller’s Alley
- Detroit Institute of Arts / Scarab Club exhibition (1920)
- Gray Day in Michigan
- From the Hillside
- Moonlight on Lake Betsy
- Greenwich Village exhibition, Jackson Square Branch Library (1922)
- Described as the “Dutch-American painter of our Village streets and back yards”
- Paintings of Bleecker Street, Washington Square South, the Catskills and Hudson River
- Whitney Studio Club member
- Student of Robert Henri
- Student of Romain Kryzanowski
- Edward Hopper portrait
- Baltimore exhibition of 24 paintings (1923)
Alaska Period (1924–1926)
- Seward, Alaska
- St. Peter’s Church Resurrection mural
- Seattle exhibition (34 Alaska paintings)
- Juneau painting season (1926)
- Douglas, Alaska painting (’26)
- Juneau to Seattle voyage (1926)
Western Canada & Saguenay Period (1927–1928)
- Chicoutimi, Quebec
- Jean Palardy studies under Van Empel
- Presentation painting to Jean Palardy (“last evening in Chicoutimi,” May 31, 1927?)
- Jasper National Park
- Mount Whistler
- Athabasca River
- Old Fort Point
- Skeena River country
- Alert Bay
- Indigenous village and totem pole subjects
- Winnipeg
- Robert Ayre connection begins
Eastern Canada & New England Period (1928–1930)
- Oshawa exhibition (Luke Furniture)
- Alexandra Luke connection
- Montreal exhibition
- Robert Ayre article: The Man Who Doesn’t Believe in Autumn
- Franconia, New Hampshire
- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition (1929)
- Leonard Cline / Chicory Hill circle
- Maine landscapes
Texas & Mexico Period (1930–1931)
- Houston studio
- Gordon Franklin Peers studies under Van Empel
- Mexico painting trip
- Return from Mexico
- Fatal Texas automobile accident
- Death from accident injuries (1931)
Posthumous Legacy & Unresolved Questions (1931–Present)
- Possible loss or dispersal of Mexican paintings
- Oshawa interment (1934)
- Connections to Dorothy Tait and R.Y. Luke
- Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s 1928 Alert Bay painting
- Ongoing research into Jan Van Empel’s travels, exhibitions, and artistic network
Jan Van Empel – Documentary Timeline
Amsterdam → Staten Island → Detroit → Greenwich Village → Whitney Studio Club → Baltimore → Alaska → Jasper → Alert Bay → Winnipeg → Oshawa → Montreal → Chicoutimi → Franconia → Houston → Mexico → Texas → Oshawa
Research Summary – Current Status
What began with a single inscribed Douglas, Alaska painting has evolved into a substantial reconstruction of Jan Van Empel’s career using contemporary newspapers, exhibition catalogues, museum records, archival material, surviving paintings, and personal inscriptions. The evidence now shows that Van Empel was not simply a little-known “Dutch painter” who worked briefly in Alaska. Instead, he emerges as a Dutch-born artist whose career was closely associated within North American art circles, extending from Staten Island, Greenwich Village, Detroit, and Baltimore to Alaska, British Columbia, Quebec, New England, Texas, and Mexico.
One of the most important discoveries concerns Van Empel’s artistic identity. Contemporary newspaper accounts often described him as a Dutch artist, while a 1922 Greenwich Village review referred to him as the “Dutch-American painter” of Village streets and backyards exhibiting at the Jackson Square Branch Library. The review notes that he painted Greenwich Village subjects, Catskill landscapes, Hudson River moonlight scenes, and still lifes, revealing a significant New York period before his later western travels. Meanwhile, Jean Palardy, who studied under Van Empel in the Saguenay, described him on a National Gallery of Canada artist information form as “Jan Van Empel, American painter.” Taken together, these sources suggest that although Van Empel was born in Amsterdam, his artistic training, professional associations, and career development were largely American.
A key piece of evidence comes from Who’s Who in Art (1925), which lists Van Empel as a resident of Seward, Alaska, records his birth in Amsterdam on January 9, 1880, identifies him as a pupil of Robert Henri and Romain Kryzanowski, and notes his membership in the Studio Club. This contemporary directory entry provides some of the strongest documentary evidence linking Van Empel to the New York art world and the generation of artists associated with Henri, Edward Hopper, and the Whitney Studio Club.
The documentary record now places Van Empel in a remarkable series of artistic circles and locations. By 1914 he was exhibiting Staten Island scenes through the Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences. By 1919 and 1920 he was exhibiting at the Detroit Institute of Arts through the Scarab Club. By 1922 he was showing work in Greenwich Village and at the New York Public Library’s Jackson Square Branch. He later appeared in Whitney Studio Club circles, exhibited in Baltimore in 1923, studied under Robert Henri, and was the subject of a charcoal portrait by Edward Hopper. During the mid-1920s he worked in Alaska, painting around Seward, Juneau, and Douglas while completing the Resurrection mural for St. Peter’s Church. From there the trail leads through Jasper National Park, Alert Bay, Winnipeg, Oshawa, Montreal, Chicoutimi, Franconia, New Hampshire, Houston, and Mexico before ending with the fatal Texas automobile accident of April 1931.
The relationship between Van Empel and Jean Palardy is now firmly documented. Palardy stated on multiple occasions that he studied under Van Empel for several months in the Saguenay. The presentation painting inscribed to Palardy from Chicoutimi provides physical evidence of that connection, while contemporary and later biographical sources independently confirm the teacher-student relationship.
Several mysteries remain. The most significant is the Oshawa connection. Van Empel exhibited there in 1928, Alexandra Luke reportedly saw the work of the visiting artist around that time, a Van Empel painting remains in Oshawa’s Robert McLaughlin Gallery collection, and cemetery records indicate his interment in Oshawa in 1934. Why Oshawa became so important at the end of his story remains unclear. Connections involving R. Y. Luke, Dorothy Tait, the Henderson family, and the Luke Furniture exhibition may ultimately provide the answer.
Another unresolved question concerns Van Empel’s final Mexican paintings. A later Texas article reported that researchers were searching for approximately 200 paintings believed to have been completed in Mexico before his death. Whether these works were destroyed in the accident, dispersed among friends and patrons, shipped elsewhere, or simply lost remains unknown. Given the severity of the collision and the absence of any documented estate inventory, the fate of these works remains one of the most intriguing unanswered chapters in Van Empel’s career.
Perhaps the greatest surprise of this research is that the verified story proves more compelling than the legends. The deeper the trail has been followed, the more interesting the documented facts have become. Van Empel did not need embellishment. The historical record already reveals a Dutch-born, American-trained artist whose travels, exhibitions, students, patrons, and friendships connected him to Robert Henri, Romain Kryzanowski, Edward Hopper, Jean Palardy, Robert Ayre, Gordon Franklin Peers, Alexandra Luke, and artistic communities across North America. Far from being a forgotten regional painter, Jan Van Empel appears increasingly as a significant figure whose story has simply been scattered across archives, newspapers, museum records, exhibition catalogues, and a handful of surviving paintings.
Looking across the reconstructed timeline, one cannot help but wonder what Jan Van Empel might have accomplished had he lived into his sixties and seventies. Many artists reach their fullest artistic expression only after decades of experimentation and technical development. By 1930, Van Empel had progressed from the streets of Staten Island and Greenwich Village to the landscapes of Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, New England, Texas, and Mexico. Rather than settling into a predictable routine, he appeared to be continually seeking new subjects and new places. His death at age 51 did not conclude a long, completed career; it interrupted one that still seemed to be evolving.
Research Note: Confusion with Johannes Nicolaas van Empel (1930–1991)
Jan Van Empel (1880–1931) is frequently confused in auction records and online databases with the Dutch painter Johannes Nicolaas (Jan) van Empel (1930–1991). The latter was born in Utrecht, studied at the academies of The Hague and Amsterdam, and developed a distinctly modernist style characterized by increasingly abstract forms and bold use of colour. By contrast, the Jan Van Empel documented in this research was born in Amsterdam on January 9, 1880, studied under Robert Henri and Romain Kryzanowski, was active in New York, Alaska, Canada, Texas, and Mexico, and died following a Texas automobile accident in 1931. Researchers and collectors should exercise caution when consulting auction databases, as works by the two artists are occasionally conflated.
© 2026 Nash Gallery | Following the Trail of Jan Van Empel
This page is part of an ongoing independent research project dedicated to reconstructing the life and career of Jan Van Empel (1880–1931). Research, photography, transcriptions, and written content are copyright Nash Gallery. Please do not reproduce or republish without permission.
The author welcomes correspondence from collectors, institutions, descendants, and researchers who may possess additional information, photographs, paintings, exhibition records, or archival material relating to Jan Van Empel.
“Every painting tells a story. Sometimes the story takes a century to uncover.”