Learning of an Amazing Discovery

In July, Gossips reported that Peter Jung had been commissioned to sell this a little-known painting by Henry Ary, dated 1854, showing Promenade Hill and the views beyond.

By a happy coincidence, Gossips learned today some intriguing information about the provenance of this painting. It was discovered, in the 1950s, right here in Hudson, in the attic of this house, 259 Union Street, which once stood on the southwest corner of Union and Third streets.

The painting had been left in the attic by previous owners of the house, but the identity of the owners who relegated the Ary to the attic and left it there when they moved on is not known. The family who discovered the Ary in the attic knew their house as the "Punderson house." (At that time in Hudson, all houses seem to have had names.) According to the Hudson city directory for 1912, Mrs. James M. Punderson lived at 259 Union Street, and Russell M. and Louise Punderson were boarders at that address. Hudson River School paintings were considered outdated by the end of the 19th century, so the Pundersons may well have been the ones who consigned the Ary to the attic in favor of something more fashionable and then forgot about it. One wonders what else was in that attic.
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