Retracing the Spanish Path of My Ancestor, the Founder of the Whitney

Wonderful window into her life, skills and another time and lovely writing. Thank you. Does anyone know where in Paris 16th her studio was?

Bizarre and tone-deaf. There is nothing to celebrate about Columbus...I would tell you to ask the indigenous people what they thought of him but their decimation after his “discovery” speaks volumes. NY Times should be ashamed of this effort to obscure the legacy of pillage, rape, slavery, and genocide through one person’s search for family history. Is it any surprise that tremendously rich families and socialites thought Columbus was worth celebrating? Disgusting

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was a prominent sculptor in her own right, apart from her famous name and association with the Whitney Museum. Excelling at representational, often allegorical pieces, she was one of many female sculptors, such as Malvina Hoffman, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, and Bessie Potter Vonnoh, among others, who rose to prominence after being involved with creating art for the world's fairs in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It is a shame that the work of these brilliant artists has become so unfashionable as to have disappeared from public view. Whitney created a haunting memorial to the men who went down on the “Titanic,” financed, by the way, by American women. But, this sculpture in Washington D.C., was moved to make way for the Kennedy Center, and now requires effort to be viewed at all. Interestingly, Whitney’s semi-finalist submission for a monument to be constructed at the spot where Columbus finally landed, was fascinating, though massive. By that time, huge memorial sculptures had been overshadowed by worldwide Depression. I find it fascinating that Whitney and her fellows have so fallen from public approval that they seem to have been mostly forgotten. Even her own great-granddaughter doesn’t know as much about her famous forebear’s work as one would expect. These artists need greater celebration.

Thanks for the article. I lived in Spain in the late 60s and have always loved the country. Your book sounds rather fascinating.

Puerto de Palos was the original name of the port from where Columbus departed.

I read years ago that English-colonial historians downplayed the role of Columbus for centuries, focusing attention on the colonists in Virginia and Massachusetts. Columbus finally got attention when Washington Irving in the early 1800s wrote a children's biography about him. Unfortunately his biography created the silly myth that people in Columbus' day thought the earth was flat an only Columbus thought it was round. Educated people in Columbus' day read Aristotle, who had collected evidence proving Earth was a globe. They knew perfectly well that the Earth was round. The actual argument was how large it was and whether Asia was within practical reach of Europe if one sailed west. Columbus was wrong; his voyage "succeeded" because he accidently bumped into the Americas. This is all summed up in a book by Isaac Asimov. Amazing how much history can be distorted, particularly when the historian has an axe to graind.

And along the shore of St. Nazaire, France, stands her statue paying hommage to the American soldiers of World War One, but now commemorating all American Forces who fought in France in both wars. It was destroyed by the Nazis and rebuilt years later, though not as finely detailed as the original. Last year my father's B-17 crew, lost offshore, was honored there at the statue. I thought of Gertrude then and her partner in founding the Whitney, Juliana Force.

Geez, I thought we were suppose to be moving beyond the aggrandizement of white privilege?! Had it not been for her money and family connections, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney would have been considered a decent second tier artist, which is where much of her work should be so categorized.

A lovely tribute to a great grand mother and her accomplishment. Spain is deeply aware of its role -- both positive and negative -- in the "encounter of two worlds" as the discovery of the Americas is known in Spain. Notwithstanding the many deep and dark negatives the fact remains that it was a stunning coming together of multiple worlds. Spain radiated across the Americas to the Philippines and Guam and most probably Hawaii; and a Spaniard first circumnavigated and charted the globe. The statue is a tribute to that spirit that is on the Spanish coat of arms "Plus Ultra" or More Beyond.

Huge memories for me wrapped up in this statue. In August 1992 I was crewing on a large Alden schooner, Constellation, participating in a sailing rally recreating Columbus's voyage. We had many adventures on that old wooden boat, which was not quite sound, sailing her over from the Florida. We lost Constellation one night in the river right across from that statue, after running hard aground at the top of the tide. We couldn't get her off, and she ended up lying on her side as the tide went out. She couldn't stand up to her own weight, and we heard horrible cracking noises from inside her hull as we lay on deck all through the night, unable to sleep, with that pale statue looming in the darkness across the river from us. Come morning, as the tide came up again, Constellation just filled up with water and we had to abandon her. The statue was gleaming in the new day's sun.

Thanks for a great article. I can't wait to read your book.

Am I the only reader observing the distinct similarity between the physiognomy of the statue and that of the sculptor? Perhaps this is some sort of perceptual bias on my part, but I'd love to hear what Fiona Donovan has to say--now or in her book--on this subject.

Enjoyed reading and learning from this article. I was just in Portugal last week and drove to Seville. Saw the sign for Huelva. Should have stopped there. Will do so next time.

What a fascinating family history, and new to me. Thank you so much.

I look forward to reading your biography of GVW. From my World War 1 studies, I know a bit about her and have always wanted to know more.

Seville, Huelva & Cadiz are all easy and short stops from each other...Travel south a few miles to Costa de la Luz..Coast of the Light...and the infamous El Palmar beach where I used to surf a few years ago. Further south and hour or so it Tarifa..the wind and kite surfing mecca in the south of Spain. From Tarifa, one can catch the ferry to Tangiers..just 30 minutes or so. The roads less traveled...