The 1748 Arrival of Governor George Clinton: A New Painting by Len Tantillo

This installation focuses on a single painting and its making, The Arrival of Governor George Clinton, by Rensselaer County artist Len Tantillo. In 2015, Institute patrons, Donald and Ann Eberle, made the decision to commemorate their upcoming sixtieth wedding anniversary by commissioning Tantillo, a noted painter of historical subjects and marine views, to create a painting for the Institute’s collection. This installation will recount the process of choosing and reconstructing the painting’s historically accurate event, the arrival of New York colonial governor George Clinton at Albany’s waterfront, an event that occurred three separate times during the 1740s and 1750s. A selection of historical objects, maps, and an interactive digital recreation of Albany during the middle of the eighteenth century, derived from a recently discovered map in the British Library, will allow visitors to follow along on the trail of discovery and recreation.