Central Park, Transverse Road No. 2
1870
Medium
Pen and ink, brown wash and watercolor
Dimensions
Image: 6 7/16 × 11 13/16 in. (16.4 × 30 cm) Sheet: 8 3/16 × 13 5/16 in. (20.8 × 33.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Herbert Mitchell, 2008
Accession Number
2018.839.129
Art Historical Context
Step into the heart of New York City's emerging urban oasis with *Central Park, Transverse Road. 2*, a delicate 1870 drawing by the artist known only as E. P. This intimate work captures one of the park's key transverse roads—wide paths designed to carry carriage traffic beneath the landscape without disrupting the pastoral illusion. Created just over a decade after Central Park opening in 1858, it offers a rare glimpse into the park's early years, when Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's vision of a "rural recreation ground" was still taking root amid the growing metropolis. Rendered in...