Weehawken from Turtle Grove

Weehawken from Turtle Grove

William James Bennett

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Acquired as a view of the upper Hudson River by William Guy Wall, this watercolor was later discovered to have been the model for an Asher B. Durand engraving that bears an inscription clearly identifying Bennett as the author of the image. The records of the National Academy of Design verify that Bennett exhibited a work with the title “Weehawken from Turtle Grove,” “painted for an engraving by Durand,” in 1831. The bluffs of Weehawken in 1830 were still sufficiently undeveloped to be regarded as the edge of the wildernesses of the upper Hudson and New England, which were also represented in the gift book that included the engraving of this watercolor. Today, the nearest of the same bluffs supports the access ramp of the Lincoln Tunnel.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.