Emma H. Van Pelt

Emma Van Pelt from Morristown, New Jersey painted watercolor landscapes of Nantucket, New York and Maine.  These watercolors offer an early glimpse of Nantucket landscapes “of long ago” …circa 1890.  There is not much known of Emma’s activities from 1890 – 1920, but Robert Fraiser has provided some insight to her activities on the Island from the 1920’s onward.  During the Summers in the 1920’s, Emma H. Van Pelt and her sister Marianna Van Pelt rented one of the studio spaces in the Harbor View building, one of Florence Lang’s properties at the base of Commercial Wharf that housed many of the waterfront artists.  Emma exhibited 4 watercolors in the historic 1923 Candle House Exhibition at the corner of Commercial Wharf and Washington Street.  She is listed as an artist at the Easy Street Gallery as early as 1926 and both sisters are listed for 1929, and Emma is listed in 1937 and 1940.  She is also listed as a participant in the 1937 Sidewalk Art Show, and likely participated in many more beginning in the 1930’s.  She advertised in local papers and taught sketching in the early 20th Century.  Van Pelt was friends with Annie Barker Folger and Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin. (d. 1941).

Recent Examples at Auction