William Guy Wall (10 results)

Engraving with original hand color, 19 3/4" x 28 3/4" sheet. Excellent condition. The depiction of City Hall - iconic in its staging of a democratic institution - derives much of its appeal from the collaboration between Wall and master engraver John Hill. As Koke (1959), p. 52 points out, the latter's artistry resides in his ability to interpret and visually enhance his models. John Hill's engravings are thus a collaborative effort that adapts the painterly qualities of the original drawing or watercolor to the technical idiosyncrasies of its reproduction. Hill was born in London in 1770 and his upbringing and apprenticeship in the British capital reflect the political environment and aesthetic culture during the long reign of King George III. It is furthermore the proliferating booktrade that laid the foundations for the young apprentice's technical mastery in his later American works. Its beginnings, however, can be seen as early as 1801 when he was commissioned to illustrate William Henry Pyne's "Microcosm" of the arts, agriculture, manufactures, trade, and amusements of Great Britain. Only in 1816 did he decide to emigrate to the United States where he bought a house for his family in Philadelphia. Engraving, and especially the aquatint technique, was a still underdeveloped medium in the New World that Hill and his contemporary William Bennett would perfect within decades. Koke (1959), p. 52 confirms: "His prints have been praised for the quality of their execution and the beautiful application of their color. His engraving of New York, Philadelphia, and the American scene have been commended in the highest terms as 'choice bits' of Americana, winning him his repute as one of the most talented and prolific workers in aquatint during the Golden Age of American engraving in the early 19th century." John Hill also set up a printing press in his house and saw through the process from beginning to end. With his commissions for Moses Thomas' "Analectic Magazine", he was an important catalyst in the popularization of American landscape painting and the Hudson River School in particular. The print medium allowed him and artists like Joshua Shaw to make their atmospheric landscape depictions accessible to a wider audience and it is in this tradition that one of his major works, the "Hudson River Portfolio", achieved lasting success. Its plates were based on watercolors by William Guy Walls. Though Walls was not regarded as a pre-eminent artist, his paintings were much admired in the newly founded National Academy of Design. It is thanks to his congenial collaborator that the "Hudson River Portfolio" became, in the words of I.N.P. Stokes, "the finest collection of New York State views ever published". The same holds true for his engravings of Manhattan and the view of "City Hall" in particular. Until his death in 1850, this series of prints was never to be surpassed. Lit. Richard J. Koke: "John Hill, Master of Aquatint. 1770-1850", in The New York Historical Society Quarterly 1 (1959), pp. 51-117. #10165B.

Kein Einband. Condition: Gut bis sehr gut. Dust Jacket Condition: Kein Schutzumschlag. Von William Guy Wall (17921864). Normale Alters- und Lagerungsspuren. Darstellung (11.8 x 19.8cm) auf Papier (20.6 x 24.7cm) By William Guy Wall (17921864). Normal signs of age and storage wear. Image (11.8 x 19.8cm) on paper (20.6 x 24.7cm)# Zeitraum: 1800-1899 USA USA Irland Ireland Landschaft Landscape Albany, Hudson River, New York, Flusslandschaft, river landscape, Boot, boat, Pferde, horses, Stahlstich, steel engraving, Insel, island.

Kein Einband. Condition: Gut bis sehr gut. Dust Jacket Condition: Kein Schutzumschlag. Stahlstich von T.S. Woodcock nach William Guy Wall (17921864). Blick auf Newburgh am Hudson River mit Schiffsverkehr und ländlicher Szenerie. Altersspuren. Darstellung (13.5 x 18.5cm) auf Papier (20.9 x 23.4cm) Steel engraving by T.S. Woodcock after William Guy Wall (17921864). View of Newburgh on the Hudson River with shipping traffic and rural scenery. Signs of age. Image (13.5 x 18.5cm) on paper (20.9 x 23.4cm)# Jahr: 1834 Vereinigte Staaten United States Irland Ireland Landschaft Landscape Newburgh, Hudson River, William Guy Wall, Stahlstich, steel engraving, Landschaft, landscape, Schiffe, ships, Hafen, harbor.

Aquatint and engraving, with hand-colouring by John Hill. The Wall view of Manhattan from Weehawken The steeple at the right end of Manhattan Island is Trinity Church; that at the extreme left of the view is St. John's Chapel. Connected to the tip of the island by a bridge is Castle Clinton (now Castle Garden). Governor's Island, with Castle Fort William, lies just off Manhattan. In the right middle distance, forming part of the Jersey shoreline, is Steven's Point. In the distance, the Narrows dividing Brooklyn and Staten Island. This view, together with the companion New York from the Heights near Brooklyn, forms "one of the most beautiful pairs of views of New York in the early nineteenth century" (Stokes, American Historical Prints, op.cit.). A contemporary newspaper article noted that the "views taken by Mr. Wall are the most accurate descriptions that we have seen. One of them is taken from Brooklyn Heights, near the Distillery of the Messrs. Pierponts, and the other from the Mountain at Weehawk. Mr. Wall at first made a drawing from the high land back of Hoboken; but the view from Weehawk is far preferable, as it not only affords a commanding prospect of the city but also of the whole of our beautiful harbor, with all the islands, &c." The original watercolor is preserved in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This is a beautifully coloured impression from the third state. Stauffer 616; Stokes, American Historical Prints, c.1820-23-E-98; Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, vol. III, pp.557-579, illustrated plate 92; Koke, Checklist of John Hill, number 95; Déak, Picturing America, number 336, illustrated.

First state of two. Aquatint, coloured by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. "William Guy Wall shows us the Palisades in their stark splendor, allowing very little animation in his riverscape to detract from the majesty of the natural wonder. Sailboats, dwarfed by the height of the bluffs, are reflected in the water, as is the towering stone wall." (Deak, 321) In the summer of 1820 the Irish-born and trained landscape artist William Guy Wall (1792-after 1864) went on an extended sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley and its environs. A selection of Wall's watercolors recording sights on his tour was engraved by the master printmaker John Hill (1770-1850) in The Hudson River Portfolio, published in New York City by Henry J. Megarey between 1821 and 1825. Long considered a cornerstone in the development of American printmaking and landscape painting, its twenty topographical views cover roughly 212 miles of the 315-mile course of the Hudson River. This undertaking paved the way for a wider public appreciation of landscape in the United States. The first series of prints to make Americans aware of the beauty and sublimity of their own scenery, the seminal Portfolio helped to stimulate national pride and cultural identity. In 1764, Albert Baker built Kingsbury's first sawmill near what is known today as Baker's Falls. As early as 1792, the area of Kingsbury near Baker's Falls was referred to as Sandy Hill. In 1810, the hamlet incorporated as a village, keeping the name Sandy Hill. Its boundaries expanded to their current limits in the 1840s. In 1910, the village's name was changed to Hudson Falls The plate engraved by John Hill was published in 1822-23. Its text notes: "To the eye accustomed to dwell on the calm and cultivated beauty of a European landscape, if the scenery of the annexed engraving appear defective in some of those features which lend grace and animation to a picture, it affords a cheerful and striking contrast to the grandeur of the Highlands. Here the Hudson forfeits its right to the name of the North River, suddenly departing from its accustomed course, and conducting its waters in a western direction. The fall of water, in this place, is very diminutive, although sufficient to keep the mill in operation which speculative industry has erected upon it. The section of road is that leading to Glen's Falls, Lake George, &c." Cf. Deak, Picturing America 320 & 321; Koke, A Checklist of the American Engravings of John Hill [88].

Aquatint, coloured by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. Printed by Rollinson. A fine view of the junction of the Sacandaga and the Hudson from "The Hudson River Portfolio": one of the "finest collections of New York State views ever published" (Deak). "In the summer of 1820 the Irish-born and trained landscape artist William Guy Wall (1792-after 1864) went on an extended sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley and its environs. A selection of Wall's watercolors recording sights on his tour was engraved by the master printmaker John Hill (1770-1850) in The Hudson River Portfolio, published in New York City by Henry J. Megarey between 1821 and 1825. Long considered a cornerstone in the development of American printmaking and landscape painting, its twenty topographical views cover roughly 212 miles of the 315-mile course of the Hudson River. This undertaking paved the way for a wider public appreciation of landscape in the United States. The first series of prints to make Americans aware of the beauty and sublimity of their own scenery, the seminal Portfolio helped to stimulate national pride and cultural identity. The adjacent text reads: "The Hudson river receives the water of the Sacandaga, at the village of Luzerne about fourteen miles west of Sandy-Hill, and about two hundred and twenty-four from New-York. There are some considerable rapids at this place, which are dignified by the name of the Little Falls. The shores are broken and precipitous; and the natural course of the current is impeded and distracted by the large fragments of stone. The character of the scenery is a wild, ferocious, and solitary sublimity; lofty and irregular acclivities, covered with the gloomy verdure of interminable forests and glens. The forests of Luzerne are principally of white pine. The time of day represented in the engraving is morning." Cf. Deak 320; R.J. Koke Checklist of John Hill 76; New York Historical Society notes to an exhibition on the Hudson River School.

Aquatint, colored by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. Sheet size: 18 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches. Superb example of one of the greatest and earliest works devoted to the American landscape. "In the summer of 1820 the Irish-born and trained landscape artist William Guy Wall (1792-after 1864) went on an extended sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley and its environs. A selection of Wall's watercolors recording sights on his tour was engraved by the master printmaker John Hill (1770-1850) in The Hudson River Portfolio, published in New York City by Henry J. Megarey between 1821 and 1825. Long considered a cornerstone in the development of American printmaking and landscape painting, its twenty topographical views cover roughly 212 miles of the 315-mile course of the Hudson River. This undertaking paved the way for a wider public appreciation of landscape in the United States. The first series of prints to make Americans aware of the beauty and sublimity of their own scenery, the seminal Portfolio helped to stimulate national pride and cultural identity and was so popular that it was reprinted in 1828 by G. & C. & H. Carvill. It is no wonder that Wall is often seen as a forerunner of the first group of American landscape painters to focus on American subjects known as the Hudson River School. Wall and Hill demonstrate in this view their great talent for investing apparently simple and random scenes with grandeur and intrigue. The focal point of the image is an unadorned raft with a number of men shown from so far away that there no distinguishing individual characteristics: they are mere figures floating down the calm, mirror-like river. The hills that slope down into the river are reflected to such a degree that it's hard to discern exactly where the hills stops and the reflection begins. The succession of hills and the river recede into the distance beneath a gray sky, also reflected in the river. The hills, river and sky seem to have a quiet liveliness of quite a different order than that of the active little figures on the raft. First state of three, before the plate was corrected to No. 18. Koke, A Checklist #82; Deak, Picturing America #320.

Aquatint, coloured by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. In the summer of 1820 the Irish-born and trained landscape artist William Guy Wall (1792-after 1864) went on an extended sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley and its environs. A selection of Wall's watercolors recording sights on his tour was engraved by the master printmaker John Hill (1770-1850) in The Hudson River Portfolio, published in New York City by Henry J. Megarey between 1821 and 1825. Long considered a cornerstone in the development of American printmaking and landscape painting, its twenty topographical views cover roughly 212 miles of the 315-mile course of the Hudson River. This undertaking paved the way for a wider public appreciation of landscape in the United States. The first series of prints to make Americans aware of the beauty and sublimity of their own scenery, the seminal Portfolio helped to stimulate national pride and cultural identity The commentary notes that: "This view of the Rapids was taken from a favourable point between the Falls and Jessup's Landing, where the Hudson sweeps round an elbow of stupendous rocks, just before it takes its leap over the precipice which gives the name to the great falls. The bed of the river is here sunk between two magnificent walls of perpendicular cliffs, which rise to the height of 70 to 80 feet. Towering and massive rocks are, perhaps, the most striking images of solitude and sublimity. The picture before us exhibits images of this character, in their fullest perfection; and, in combination with another feature of the grand and impressive order conveys to the mind a most effective idea of romantic loneliness. The excellence of Mr. Wall's water scenery has been before alluded to." Deak 320; New York Historical Society notes to an exhibition on the Hudson River School.

First state. Aquatint, colored by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. A great example of one of the earliest and finest American printed landscapes. In the summer of 1820 the Irish-born and trained landscape artist William Guy Wall (1792-after 1864) went on an extended sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley and its environs. A selection of Wall's watercolors recording sights on his tour was engraved by the master printmaker John Hill (1770-1850) in The Hudson River Portfolio, published in New York City by Henry J. Megarey between 1821 and 1825. Long considered a cornerstone in the development of American printmaking and landscape painting, its twenty topographical views cover roughly 212 miles of the 315-mile course of the Hudson River. This undertaking paved the way for a wider public appreciation of landscape in the United States. The first series of prints to make Americans aware of the beauty and sublimity of their own scenery, the seminal Portfolio helped to stimulate national pride and cultural identity. In the first state, this is plate 10 and in the subsequent state plate 9. Its text begins: "View Near Fort Miller Bridge / Fort Miller is a small village in the township of Argyle and Washington county; thirty-seven miles north of Albany, and thirteen south of Sandy-Hill. The great post-road from Albany crosses the bridge at this place. There are some considerable rapids and falls near this place; the latter of which were about eight feet in height when this view of the river was taken. Over these falls it is by no means unusual for raftmen to precipitate their rafts. General Putnam is said to have been the first who tried this daring achievement. A party of Indians came suddenly upon him, as he was lying near the rapids with a bateau and five men. The situation of this village is pleasing; the country about it picturesque; and the soil favourable to cultivation." This serene landscape portrait looking down the great Hudson River toward West Point is a fine example of the Wall/Hill collaboration in which an apparently straightforward depiction of water, trees, hills and sky creates a rich, evocative mood, a sense of vast calm. Koke, A Checklist # 92; Deak, Picturing America #320; from New York Historical Society notes to an exhibition.

Aquatint, colored by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. The plate number "18" has been written in ink in the title. A few minor abrasions in the title and mild soiling. Superb example of one of the greatest and earliest works devoted to the American landscape. Wall and Hill demonstrate in this view their great talent for investing apparently simple and random scenes with grandeur and intrigue. The focal point of the image is an unadorned raft with a number of men shown from so far away that there no distinguishing individual characteristics: they are mere figures floating down the calm, mirror-like river. The hills that slope down into the river are reflected to such a degree that it's hard to discern exactly where the hills stops and the reflection begins. The succession of hills and the river recede into the distance beneath a gray sky, also reflected in the river. The hills, river and sky seem to have a quiet liveliness of quite a different order than that of the active little figures on the raft. "The Hudson River Portfolio, a series of twenty views.celebrates the beauty of the Hudson and its surroundings. It is amongst the finest collections of New York State views ever published.The aquatints show us the region of the Hudson's headwaters, the rapids it creates on its journey downstream, the bridges it makes imperative overhead, the trade that its navigability spawns, and, most of all, the ennobling topographic settings through which it passes. In the final view, New York from Governor's Island, we see the Hudson at the end of its journey, where it joins the East River in New York Bay.William Guy Wall.was a native of Dublin who came to America in 1818.Beginning in 1826, he exhibited frequently at the National Academy of Design.[He was skillful with atmospheric perspective in his landsacpes, and he created almost spiritual effects with light, at a time when viewers were used to literal depictions. Between 1828 and 1835 he remained in America, but then returned to Dublin for twenty years. He came back to America for four years between 1856 and 1860, before again returning in Ireland where he lived for the remaining four years of his life] Wall frequently worked in tandem with John Hill, whose emigration from England predated that of Wall by two years.According to Koke, 'the artistic achievement for which Hill is best known.was the Hudson River Portfolio, a landscape series closely akin to the Picturesque Views of American Scenery recently finished for the Careys' (John Hill Master of Aquatint, p.86).Hill, an aquatintist virtually without peer in America, was called in to fill the place vacated by John Rubens Smith, who dissociated himself from the Portfolio before he finished engraving the four plates of the first number.Hill belonged to a small group of English-trained engravers who raised the level of American print-making to an extraordinary degree" (Deak, pp. 217-218). Second state of 3 (with number `18' added in manuscript to title) Koke, A Checklist #82; Deak, Picturing America #320.