View of Philadelphia and the Delaware River from Kensington, Pennsylvania

ca. 1800-1804

Pastel, gouache, watercolor, and charcoal on paper, laid on canvas, nailed to a strainer

Overall: 16 1/8 x 21 3/8 in. (41 x 54.3 cm)

Gift of Ethel McCullough Scott, John G. McCullough, and Edith McCullough Heaphy

1971.123

George Beck’s scene includes the great elm of Shackamaxon, the legendary site of William Penn’s treaty with the Indians. Winds blew the tree down in 1810, but it is now commemorated by a monument in Penn Treaty Park. Beck was among the earliest professional landscape painters in America, and one of the first to push beyond the representational limits of topographical draftsmanship. He learned to draw maps in the corps of engineers at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England. After leaving the military for health reasons, Beck worked as a drawing instructor. In 1795, he sailed for America to paint its already legendary landscapes. The new land was so promising that Beck sent for his wife and never returned to England. He lived and worked as an artist in Baltimore and Philadelphia, by 1807 settling in Lexington, Kentucky. Beck was also a classical scholar and a published poet. Beck’s works consist primarily of paintings of American city and river views, as well as works on paper. Between 1800 and 1809, he provided to Atkins & Nightingale designs for six topographic prints of American views and natural wonders, engraved by Thomas Cartwright and published as aquatints. Although Beck assuredly considered his landscape paintings significant, his current reputation rests largely on these popular aquatints. Similarities between this watercolor and Cartwright’s aquatint of the same location make it tempting to conclude that Beck made this work in preparation for the print. This drawing and its pendant (1971.1220, share identical original églomisé mounts, frames, and a common, albeit unknown, provenance.

InscribedCanvas inscribed at lower center in charcoal: "Kensington"; original gold and black painted glass (églomisé) mount lettered: "KENSINGTON"

ClassificationsDRAWINGS