New York from Weehawk

William Guy Wall

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This watercolor and its pendant (54.90.301) were engraved as a pair by John Hill in 1823, just as Wall and Hill were collaborating on the better-known “Hudson River Portfolio” (1821–1825), a series of sixteen aquatints of picturesque views of the river from near Saratoga Springs to New York City. The two watercolors offer prospects of the city’s once recumbent profile from opposing standpoints in Brooklyn and New Jersey, respectively in the morning and late afternoon. In Wall’s time the view from Weehawken was enjoyed less by New Jerseyans than by New Yorkers, who crossed the river by ferry north of Castle Point (visible in the middle distance at right), strolled amid Hoboken’s Elysian Fields, and, if feeling hearty, ascended the bluffs of Weehawken to admire their grand harbor and promising metropolis.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art