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Natalie Van Vleck (October 19, 1901-December 25, 1981) was an American modernist painter, artisan, and the founder of Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust in Woodbury, CT. In 1963 Van Vleck established the nature center and upon her death in 1981 her home, farm and studio, situated on 200 acres, were incorporated into the center.

An early modernist painter, Natalie Van Vleck, born on October 19, 1901 in New York City, was the only child of Bertha Macy Van Vleck and Edgar Wakeman Van Vleck. Her mother was from the wealthy Macy family of New York, and her father was an ancestor of the Dutch who founded New Amsterdam, now New York City.

EARLY YEARS

Natalie first demonstrated an interest and talent in art as a young child when she attended Brearley School in New York City. [2] Then as a teenager, she studied with the respected portrait painter Agnes Richmond [1870–1964] after school and on Saturdays at the Art Students League.

Upon graduation from Brearley, Natalie attended the Art Students League full time from 1919–1922, first studying anatomy and life drawing under George Bridgman. At Agnes Richmond’s behest she enrolled in the portrait class of Robert Henri, renowned leader of the Ashcan School. Henri recommended that his students “follow their personal approach to painting rather than adhere to any individual’s strictures.” [3] Van Vleck's paintings, furniture and prints were exhibited in 2005 at Brigham Young University Museum of Art in a major show entitled, "Thoroughly Modern: The 'New Women' Art Students of Robert Henri."[4]

Of greater significance was her study with Max Weber, who trained at Pratt Institute under Arthur Wesley Dow. Weber lived in Paris from 1905 to 1909, visiting Picasso’s studio when he and Braque were first experimenting with cubism. Weber imparted to Natalie the cubist and abstract elements she incorporated into her work during the 1920s,[5] and she became among the first American women artists to embrace cubism and abstraction in her work.

MATURATION OF THE ARTIST

From 1921 to 1922, Natalie produced some of her most advanced cubist paintings, which were based on the buildings and subways in New York City. In 1922 she traveled to Mediterranean islands and hill towns, drawing inspiration from the angular buildings, which provided a perfect subject for cubist interpretation. She also produced a series of bold, powerfully expressive cubist woodcuts of cityscapes, nudes and still lifes, based on New York and Mediterranean subjects. NVV’s early cubist woodcut, “New York Subway Abstraction,” may be the first abstract woodcut produced by an American woman.[6]

For ten years, from 1922 to 1932, Natalie visited exotic places including Mallorca, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Tahiti, and Moorea for artistic inspiration. She continued to mature as a modernist painter by creating abstract landscapes and village scenes from her favorite islands in French Polynesia and the Caribbean, as well as Italian and Spanish hill towns. [7]

Natalie belonged to the Society of Independent Artists in New York City[8] because she did not want to be associated with any particular art style. She briefly had a studio at 149 East 45th Street in New York City, which was both her workshop and gallery. In addition to painting, Natalie also carved her own picture frames, as well as fire screens, folding screens, boxes, serving trays, book ends, cabinets, and other furniture, later even created aluminum furniture.[9] Many of these carved and painted pieces were in the popular Arts and Crafts style of the time.

Three forms of artistic expression were evident in Natalie’s work: 1) Her abstract work, which she kept private and probably showed only to her friends; 2) Her regionalist or tropical landscapes and the Connecticut countryside, which she exhibited; 3) Her hand-carved frames, objects, and furniture, which were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement that flourished around the turn of the century.[10]

In December 1926, Natalie’s parents bought a farm and farmhouse in Woodbury, Connecticut along Flanders Road. By summer of that year, the family moved permanently to Woodbury. Two years later, Natalie used some of her family money to build a studio with living space and a carpentry shop adjacent to her parents’ house.[11]

During the late 1920s through the early 1930s, Natalie’s style changed. She continued to paint landscapes inspired by her travels to the tropics, sometimes referring to the orchids she raised in a greenhouse attached to her studio. She also focused on the landscape, flora and fauna of Woodbury, CT. She moved from a cubist fracturing of forms to a more realistic style, aligned with the work in the style of precisionism of her friend and colleague, Elsie Driggs, and the regionalist landscapes of Georgia O’Keefe and Thomas Hart Benton.[12]

In January 1932, Natalie received mixed reviews from art critics for her one-woman show at the Brownell-Lambertson Galleries in New York City, where she included her first paintings of Polynesia, as well as those of rural Connecticut. She may have been discouraged by the lack of unanimous praise[13] and by the competition from a cousin with the same name, Natalie Johnson Van Vleck, who was a wealthy, socialite portrait artist. [14]

While she may have been disappointed by the reviews, Natalie was not one to seek fame or fortune in the art world. She was an individualist with a strong sense of her identity, as well as a non-conformist in both art and personal style. She aligned herself with no particular art style, nor did she follow expectations for women at the time — she cut her hair short and wore men’s clothing.[15]

LIFE ON THE FARM

By 1934, except for some local exhibits of her previous works, Natalie had given up painting completely so she could devote more time to the daily operation of the family farm in Woodbury. Her parents were now elderly, and Natalie’s time and energy were consumed in creating a working farm and nature center. “Ironically, it was nature itself that would replace Natalie’s art. Instead of expressing her ‘emotional perception’ of nature on canvas, she instead became immersed in creating her greatest masterpiece — a living, working farm and nature center.”[16]

In 1935, Natalie started a turkey farm when she won a Bourbon Red tom at a turkey shoot, and was later gifted a hen. From 1935 to 1953, she raised, prepared, froze, and shipped her turkeys throughout the country. In 1942, Natalie inherited the family property when her mother died. She gradually expanded the farm to include apple trees, beehives, vegetables, and flowers.[17]

Natalie became interested in sheep farming in 1955, and soon became a prize-winning breeder of purebred Hampshire sheep. As the town of Woodbury grew, she purchased additional land to preserve the rural character of her farm and protect the flora and fauna of the surrounding area from development.

Within six years, she had begun to convert her property into a working farm sanctuary and nature preserve. Flanders Nature Center was incorporated in 1963 as a non-profit organization where educational activities were provided.[18]

With its first gift of land in the early 1970s, Flanders quickly evolved into its current role as a nature center and land trust. Flanders Nature Center and Land Trust now includes over 2,000 acres, much of which is used by adults and school groups who enjoy the botany trail, take bird walks and hay rides, see the farm animals, participate in environmental and art classes.[19]

LEGACY

Natalie Van Vleck died alone on Christmas Day in 1981, having lived a life in art and nature.[20] Her art languished in obscurity until its rediscovery in a locked closet on her property in the 1980s. Conservator Elizabeth H. Jones and Dorothy S. Hoffman catalogued Natalie’s artwork, and realizing its importance, engaged Peter Hastings Falk to produce a catalogue of Van Vleck’s work. In 1992, Flanders sold most of Natalie’s art in order to raise money for the organization. [21]

In 1998 an Art Committee was formed at Flanders, tasked with preserving and promoting Natalie’s artistic legacy. Her cutting-edge experiments with cubism and abstraction, advanced in their day, are just now receiving critical attention. Significant works have been identified and have returned to Flanders through both purchase and gifts. Efforts to locate her artwork and restore her paintings are ongoing.[22]

Her powerful body of early 20th century modern art encourages visitors to commune with nature through the eyes of an artist and become responsible stewards of the earth.

Several of her block prints are in the collections of The Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA and the Housatonic Museum, Bridgeport, CT. The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT has a pastel artwork and her sketchbooks and several watercolors are in the Archives of American Art in Washington, DC. The remainder of her work is in private collections and in the collection of Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust, Woodbury, CT.