Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

The elegantly attired sportsman Frank Work (1819 -1911), shown here driving a pair of fine matched trotting horses, came from a poor family of Chillicothe, Ohio. At eighteen he arrived in New York City, where hard work and an association with Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt enabled him to become one of the richest members of the New York Stock Exchange. At his death in 1911, he left an estate of $15 million.¹ Work's great passion was for good horses, which he housed in an elaborate private stable on West 56th Street. Work's daughter, in the style of American heiresses of the day, married a member of the Anglo-Irish nobility. Work's great-great-granddaughter through this linkage was the late Princess Diana of England.²

This view depicts the site where drivers gathered to run their horses and to compete with each other. The locale can be identified by the gambrel-roofed, cupola-topped "White House" built as a summer residence by the De Lancey family about 1828, later known as the Watt-Pinckney house. To the left, just above the line of low hills, are the apartment buildings built in 1891 in what is now the St. Nicholas Historic District, between West 137th and West 138th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues.³ In the 1920s and 1930s, after the American Negro Theatre produced a play about the people -mostly African Americans -who strove for upward mobility by living there, this group of well-designed houses was called "Strivers' Row."⁴

In the era when men like Frank Work and Commodore Vanderbilt drove fine trotting teams, this stretch of Eighth Avenue above the intersection of 110th Street was a soft dirt road, considered best for racing. There were daily speed parades along this route, the drivers for the most part attired as elegantly as Work is in this painting.

Irish-born John McAuliffe came to the United States in 1847 and settled in New York as a house painter.⁵ However, his fascination with horses and his ability to draw and paint them provided him with a new career in an era when New York City, home of both the first trotting track and the first trotting club, was enamored with the sport. His best patrons were wealthy men who took great pride in their horses and their ability to drive them well. Nineteenth-century clothing catalogues date Mr. Work's derby about 1892, thereby establishing an approximate date for the painting.

Notes:

1 "Frank Work Dead of Pneumonia at 92," New York Times, March 17, 1911.

2 Lady Colin Campbell, Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), p. 9.

3 Photographs in the Prints and Photographs Department of the Museum of the City of New York were used to make these identifications.

4 Landmarks Preservation Commission, St. Nicholas Historic District, Borough of Manhattan, no. 2 (March 16, 1967): 2.

5 Bruce Weber of Berry-Hill Galleries generously shared his finding of McAuliffe's obituaries in the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times of December 10, 1900.


Frank Work Driving a Fast Team of Trotters c. 1892 John J. McAuliffe (1830 -1900) Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 X35 Signed lower right: J. McAuliffe The J. Clarence Davies Collection, 29.100.1312
The elegantly attired sportsman Frank Work (1819 -1911), shown here driving a pair of fine matched trotting horses, came from a poor family of Chillicothe, Ohio. At eighteen he arrived in New York City, where hard work and an association with Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt enabled him to become one of the richest members of the New York Stock Exchange. At his death in 1911, he left an estate of $15 million.¹ Work's great passion was for good horses, which he housed in an elaborate private stable on West 56th Street. Work's daughter, in the style of American heiresses of the day, married a member of the Anglo-Irish nobility. Work's great-great-granddaughter through this linkage was the late Princess Diana of England.² This view depicts the site where drivers gathered to run their horses and to compete with each other. The locale can be identified by the gambrel-roofed, cupola-topped "White House" built as a summer residence by the De Lancey family about 1828, later known as the Watt-Pinckney house. To the left, just above the line of low hills, are the apartment buildings built in 1891 in what is now the St. Nicholas Historic District, between West 137th and West 138th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues.³ In the 1920s and 1930s, after the American Negro Theatre produced a play about the people -mostly African Americans -who strove for upward mobility by living there, this group of well-designed houses was called "Strivers' Row."⁴ In the era when men like Frank Work and Commodore Vanderbilt drove fine trotting teams, this stretch of Eighth Avenue above the intersection of 110th Street was a soft dirt road, considered best for racing. There were daily speed parades along this route, the drivers for the most part attired as elegantly as Work is in this painting. Irish-born John McAuliffe came to the United States in 1847 and settled in New York as a house painter.⁵ However, his fascination with horses and his ability to draw and paint them provided him with a new career in an era when New York City, home of both the first trotting track and the first trotting club, was enamored with the sport. His best patrons were wealthy men who took great pride in their horses and their ability to drive them well. Nineteenth-century clothing catalogues date Mr. Work's derby about 1892, thereby establishing an approximate date for the painting. Notes: 1 "Frank Work Dead of Pneumonia at 92," New York Times, March 17, 1911. 2 Lady Colin Campbell, Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), p. 9. 3 Photographs in the Prints and Photographs Department of the Museum of the City of New York were used to make these identifications. 4 Landmarks Preservation Commission, St. Nicholas Historic District, Borough of Manhattan, no. 2 (March 16, 1967): 2. 5 Bruce Weber of Berry-Hill Galleries generously shared his finding of McAuliffe's obituaries in the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times of December 10, 1900.