View of Prescott from Ogdensburg

Dateca. 1850

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 32" x 37" (81.3 cm x 94 cm) Unframed: 25" x 30 3/8" (63.5 cm x 77.2 cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.102.6

DescriptionLandscape scene of a harbor looking across river (the Saint Lawrence River) to a town (Prescott, Ontario) on the far side. Coming from the left in the far distance across water is a line of white houses, and some of the hills behind them also have houses on them. In the left mid distance is another point of land with a yellowish church on the point with ghostly white people in front of it and other yellowish buildings a large warehouse with two tall trees, and one masted sailing vessel in front. In the right foreground is a wharf wooden with several barrels and a man leaning against them, another man leans on piling, and there are large warehouses to the right. In the center forground a man poles a raft of logs. Other vessels include a small canoe, other sailing vessels and flat boats, and one sidewheel steam driven vessel in the distance. The colors are mostly beiges and muted blues, appearing to be washed-out.Label TextThe Canadian town of Prescott, Ontario, situated directly across the St. Lawrence River from Ogdensburg, New York, is featured in this oil copy after the engraving of the same view by William Bartlett. The unidentified artist, probably an amateur, simplified the painted composition by eliminating numerous figures appearing in the foreground of the print and by reducing details such as the rough texture of the wooden buildings to smooth, rather flat passages of paint. The partial colors of pinks, blues, and greens are well balanced, however, and account for this picture's appeal. The variety of vessels shown in both the print and the painting, ranging from lateen-rigged sailing ships to log rafts and an early side-wheel steamboat, document the bustling mercantile and pleasure-craft traffic on the St. Lawrence during the period when it served as the major waterway to the Great Lakes and the North American interior.Mark(s)The transcription of an inscription on the original stretcher, now replaced, reads: "View of P(illegible material) from Ogdensburg."ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrell George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAC's vendor.