American Art-Union

The American Art-Union 1839–1851) was a subscription-based organization whose goal was to enlighten and educate an American public to a national art, while providing a support system for the viewing and sales of art "executed by artists in the United States or by American artists abroad." Art unions had been popular since the early 19th century in Europe; they first appeared in Switzerland, gaining great popularity in both Germany and the United Kingdom in the 1830s. It was the British version — the Art Union of London (AUL) — that was used as a model for the American Art-Union (AAU).

For five dollars a year, the members of the AAU would receive a copy of the minutes from the annual meeting, free admission to the Gallery, at least one original engraving published by the Union from an original piece of art by a contemporary American artist, and in New York City, the members also received a ticket in a lottery to win an original piece of art from within the collection. The engraving shown here is by George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) and comes from Wikimedia where it is published under the CC0 License.

Many of the paintings created for the AAU ended up in the halls of Congress or in notable museums. The general public came to associate the AAU mostly with the engravings that were published annually.

Less well known is the fact that the AAU also issued three medals. These medals can be seen as the first medal series in the United States. There are some exceedingly rare variants in existence but for all but the most rarefied medallic art collector only the bronze variants are available.