American Art Collaborative

Robert Vanderburgh McKim (1841-1915) was a Baltimore physician who served as a military surgeon in the Civil War and later as brigade surgeon of the New York National Guard. At the time William Henry Rinehart made this portrait, the handsome McKim was about twenty-six years old. Little did he know that six years earlier, the sculptor had made a portrait of his future bride, Mary Schroeder Albert. After Mr. McKim and Miss Albert married, they frequently traveled abroad. When they were in this country, they participated in society functions in Baltimore and in New York. In 1915, Robert McKim collapsed and died at New York’s elite Metropolitan Club