Artist/Maker
Robert Havell Jr.
(English, 1793 - 1878)
View of Hudson River from near Sing Sing, New York
ca. 1850
Oil on canvas
Overall: 36 x 50 in. ( 91.4 x 127 cm )
Framed: 44 1/4 × 58 1/4 in. (112.4 × 148 cm)
Framed: 44 1/4 × 58 1/4 in. (112.4 × 148 cm)
Purchase, Watson Fund
1971.14
An oil sketch of this same view was owned in 1974 by Berry-Hill Galleries, New York City, and was Havell's original oil sketch for the large painting owned by the Society.
Havell was the English engraver of John James Audubon's "The Birds of America". He came to the United States in 1839, settling about 1841 at Sing Sing Westchester County and turning to landscape subjects. Havell's vision celebrates the riverside village, now called Ossining, as a bucolic haven. His painting is an elaborately detailed panoramic vista from his own hilltop house, called Rocky Mount, charting both sides of the river almost in the manner of a mapmaker. A bright sky presides over the eastern bank while dark clouds rise above the distant heights to the west. Vessels of all kinds ply the broad waters of the Tappen Zee.
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Collections
- Painting Highlights
Robert Havell Jr.
1830
1946.167
Robert Havell Jr.
19th century
1947.129
