The Topographical Tradition

The English immigrant William Burgis arrived in the American colonies sometime in the early eighteenth century and resided in New York City. He later moved to Boston, where he married the wealthy widow Mehitable Selby. Burgis identified himself as a draughtsman, painter, gentleman, and innkeeper, and is known for his large and detailed panoramic views of New York and Boston, which were engraved in London. Prospect of the City of Albany is probably based on a William Burgis drawing. It is a later copy that has recently been attributed to the British military officer and topographical artist Thomas Davies, who drew many of his own sketches of American scenery.

This view offers a detailed look at the community as it appeared in the 1720s. A stockade surrounds the main settlement, and a fort, built at the top of the hill, guards Albany from the west. The Dutch church and its cock weathervane towers over the village. Prospect of the City of Albany is a view meant to convey information about the settlement, its buildings and fortifications, and its agreeable situation on the banks of the Hudson River.

During his travels through the American colonies, the British official and colonial governor, Thomas Pownall, made several sketches of the scenic views and natural wonders he encountered. He later returned to England and had several of his drawings engraved as prints, which were included in the expensive portfolio of North American views, Scenographia Americana (1768). Pownall’s view of Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River was included in the publication.

Years later, in his published journal, titled, A Topographical Description of Such Parts of North America as are Contained in the (Annexed) Map of the Middle British Colonies, &c. (1776), Pownall explained, “I made a Sketch of this Fall upon the Spot, I afterwards composed a Drawing from it, wherein I was happy enough, after several Trials and Devices, to succeed in giving it it’s proper Scale. Mr. P. Sanby made a coloured Drawing for me from this, and an Engraving has been made after it and published.”

Pownall visited the falls twice, but it was during his second visit, when the river was high, that he encountered its sensational splendor and made his sketch. He recounted “I went a second Time to view these Falls; they were then a most tremendous Object. The Torrent, which came over, filled the whole Space from Side to Side; before it reached the Edge of the Fall it had acquired a Velocity which the Eye could scarce follow; and although at the Fall the Stream tumbled in one great Cataract: yet it did not appear like a Sheet of Water; it was a tumultuous Conglomeration of Waves foaming, and at Intervals bursting into Clouds of Vapour, which fly off in rolling Eddies like the Smoak of great Guns.”

The engraved inscription on this print of Cohoes Falls declares that the view was “drawn on the spot by Thos. Davies Capt. Lieut. Of the Royal Regt. of Artillery.” Davies, like many military officers, received training in drawing and watercolor at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England. He was stationed at various posts in North America during the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and in Canada in the 1780s and 1790s.

More than his fellow military draughtsmen, Davies developed an identifiable approach to representing topography, characterized by simplified, almost abstract, contours and outlines, bold coloring, and stylized pattern that translate even through this print.

Davies exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and later in life, devoted his attention to natural history, producing many watercolors of North American flora and fauna, scientific drawings of birds and animals, which earned him membership in 1781 in England’s prestigious scientific organization the Royal Society.

The journey from Kingston, New York, to Niagara Falls was an arduous undertaking in 1801, the year artist John Vanderlyn first visited the great cataract. He had just returned from Paris and was looking for a project to provide financial support. His early sponsor, Aaron Burr, probably suggested Niagara Falls as a subject, since he had recently been there with his daugher Theodosia and her new husband Joseph Alston of South Carolina. Vanderlyn decided that engraved prints of the falls based on his paintings could be the lucrative project he sought; after all, Vanderlyn would be the first professional artist to depict the falls.

In September, Vanderlyn traveled to the Canadian side of the falls and stayed twelve days at the Burden farm, an early boarding house. From the sketches he made on the spot, Vanderlyn eventually painted two horizontal canvases, the painting exhibited here, which he finished in Kingston, and A View of the Western Branch of the Falls of Niagara, now in the collection of Historic New England. The second view Vanderlyn did not finish until after his return to Paris in 1803.

After completing A Distant View of the Falls of Niagara, Vanderlyn sent the painting to Burr for his inspection. Burr in turn showed the painting to the British chargé d’affaires to the United States, Edward Thornton, who had seen the falls himself. Thornton wrote, “Mr. Van Der Lyn’s picture contains incomparably the most faithful animated Representation of the falls I have ever seen, it is not for me to judge any of its merits except that of its Perfect Correctness.”

Vanderlyn did succeed in having copper printing plates engraved of his two paintings. Both were engraved in London, A View of the Western Branch by the English engraver Frederick Christian Lewis, and A Distant View by the French immigrant engraver James Mérigot. Unfortunately, a number of delays and problems with distributing the prints resulted in minimal financial reward for Vanderlyn, and today few of his prints survive.

John Carwitham's engraved view of Fort George depicts the southern tip of Manhattan Island as it appeared in the early 1730s. Almost certainly the view originated from a drawing by the English immigrant artist William Burgis (active 1717–1730s) since the right half of the print showing the fort and the large ship in the foreground replicates a mezzotint that Burgis dedicated to John Montgomerie, the colonial governor of New York. King George II appointed Montgomerie in 1728, but he governed only a few years before dying in 1731 during a small pox epidemic. The view is one of the earliest depicting New York from the west with the broad Hudson River in the foreground.

The Troy Weekly Whig newspaper published a notice on September 16, 1836, that “an effort is making to procure an    engraved picture representing a prospective view of this city. Such an engraving, well executed, would be worthy of the patronage of our citizens.” Later that fall, on November 21, the newspaper announced greater details about the picture: “It will be done in aquatinta and colord, on an imperial sheet of drawing paper, 16 x 21 inches.”

Engraved prints of American cities and picturesque landscapes had grown in popularity throughout the early nineteenth century, and several large projects had already been completed, such as William Birch’s twenty-eight views of The City of Philadelphia (1798–1800), and William Guy Wall’s twenty engravings for Hudson River Portfolio (1820–1825), published by Henry J. Megarey in New York. Megarey, in fact, was the publisher of the engraved picture of Troy. He hired William James Bennett, the foremost topographical artist and engraver working in America at the time, to do the original watercolor and engrave the printing plate.

On August 2, 1837, the Troy Morning Mail printed a notice for the looking glass establishment of H. H. & T. Hooper that read: “The Picture of Troy.—The above picture is just finished and will be delivered to subscribers this day . . . It was drawn and engraved by a master in his line, Wm. J. Bennett, of the National Academy of Design, N. Y.” The print was valued at $100 in 1837, according to the Troy Morning Mail.

Bennett was born in England and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He specialized in watercolor views and worked with several print publishers including London’s most successful, Rudolph Ackermann, who specialized in publishing extravagant colored prints, books, and magazines. Bennett learned the relatively new intaglio print process known as aquatint, which closely mimicked the tonal qualities of watercolor. A comparison between Bennett’s original watercolor and his hand-colored engraving demonstrates the fidelity achieved through the aquatint process.

View of Little Falls, New York, meticulously describes the village of Little Falls and the Erie Canal as it winds through a rocky ravine just south of the Mohawk River. It is primarily a topographical painting that offers useful information about the geography of the area, the architecture and plan of the village, and the appearance and construction of the canal. William Rickerby Miller’s watercolors reflect his English origins and the work of English topographical artists like Paul Sandby and Thomas Girtin.

Born in the northeast of England, Miller probably received his initial training from his father, who was an animal and landscape painter, and who ran a stationary shop. His early watercolors indicate that he also attended art school in Norwich. Around 1844, Miller immigrated to the United States. He first settled in Buffalo, New York, but eventually moved to New York City. Watercolor was little practiced in the United States at the time, and few Americans appreciated the medium. By 1847, however, he began showing works at the American Art-Union, and after the organization ceased operations in 1852, Miller debuted at the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited for many years.

Miller’s Quaker upbringing significantly influenced his life, and he devoted himself to work and disciplined living. In 1846 he drafted a guide for himself, which he title, “My Rules and Plans of Life.” Miller earned his livelihood by making illustrations for periodicals, including Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, and Putnam’s Monthly Magazine. In the 1870s he devoted himself to creating “A Thousand Gems” of American landscape, a work that was never published. Although he continued to draw and paint landscapes in his later years, Miller spent increasing amounts of time learning languages, writing music, poetry, and plays, and traveling.