Virginia Holton Admiral or Virginia De Niro (February 4, 1915 – July 27, 2000) was an American painter, poet and the mother of actor Robert De Niro. She studied painting under Hans Hofmann in New York, and her work was included in the

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down wi ...

collection.

Life and work

Admiral was born in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, the daughter of Alice Caroline ( née Groman), a school teacher, and Donald Admiral, a grain broker. Admiral was raised as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

but later became an atheist during her adulthood. Her father had English, French, and Dutch ancestry, and her mother was of German descent. In 1920, she was residing in

Danville, Illinois Danville is a city in and the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 33,027. As of 2019, the population was an estimated 30,479. History The area that is now Danville was once home to the Miami, K ...

, according to the census, with her parents and younger sister, Eleanor. By 1930, Virginia's parents had divorced and she was living with her mother and sister in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

. While in Berkeley, her mother became a school teacher. From 1932 to 1935 Admiral was an undergraduate at

Coe College Coe College is a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associatio ...

in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she majored in journalism. Admiral studied at the Art Institute of Chicago under Hans Hofmann. In 1938, she worked on the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

, in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. While living in Berkeley, California, she had been part of an off-campus art, socialist, and literary scene. Having traveled together from California to

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York, Admiral was an intimate friend of poet Robert Duncan throughout the 1940s as well as other artists and writers in the Village scene. Among them were Anais Nin and Kenneth Patchen.With Duncan, she produced an issue of the magazine ''

Epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

'' (later renamed ''The Experimental Review''). Admiral, a painter, met Robert De Niro Sr., an aspiring artist, at one of Hans Hofmann's painting classes in

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

. They first moved into a loft apartment on E. 14th Street, later to an apartment on 8th Street, and then settled into one on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. They married in December, 1942. In August, 1943, Virginia gave birth to their son, actor and director Robert De Niro Jr. For a time Admiral worked as a typist for Anaïs Nin. Both she and husband Robert wrote erotica briefly for Nin. She and Robert De Niro divorced in 1945, but remained close throughout their lives. When Robert Sr. was stricken with cancer, she took him in during his last years. Later, in New York, she wrote for ''True Crimes'' magazine. In 1942, Admiral exhibited her art in the Springs Salon for Young Artists at

's "Art of This Century Gallery" in Manhattan. That same year she sold a painting to the Museum of Modern Art for $100. She was the first of her artist cohort to sell a painting to the Modern; Jackson Pollock had his first sale to the museum two years later. She had a solo show at the same gallery in 1946 and her work was included in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 1947. In later years, from 1973 to 1980, her art showed at Buecker & Harpsichords gallery. Admiral was active in political movements against American involvement in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and for the rights of artists and the poor. In the 1960s, she was instrumental in obtaining low-cost housing for artists working in the SoHo area of New York. Her work is in the permanent collections of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York and the

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the , an 18th-century palace, which was the home ...

in Venice. Additionally, her papers are held in the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

at the Smithsonian.

References

Sources

*Robert Duncan: ''The Ambassador from Venus'', A Biography by Lisa Jarnot;

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

, 2012 *''Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro'' by Andy Dougan; Da Capo Press, 2003

External links

Virginia Admiral papers, (ca.1947-1980)
from the Smithsonian

Virginia Admiral on Ask Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Admiral, Virginia 1915 births 2000 deaths American women painters American atheists American people of Dutch descent American people of English descent American people of French descent American people of German descent Artists from Oregon People from The Dalles, Oregon People from Greenwich Village People from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Painters from New York City 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists De Niro family