City Hall Park, New York
Medium
Watercolor, pen and black ink, heightened with white
Dimensions
sheet: 13 5/8 x 20 11/16 in. (34.6 x 52.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954
Accession Number
54.90.172
Art Historical Context
Alexander Jackson Davis's *City Hall Park, New* (1826) a serene moment in one of Manhattan's most vital public spaces during the early American. Created when New York was rapidly expanding as a commercial hub, the drawing depicts Hall Park—a bustling civic heart flanked by the elegant Federal-style City Hall (completed in 1812surrounded by emerging urban life. Davis, a pioneering architect and draftsman, documented such scenes with a keen eye for topography and atmosphere, reflecting the era's optimism amid post-Revolutionary growth. Rendered in watercolor, pen and black ink, and heightened w...
About the Artist
Alexander Jackson Davis · 1803–1892
Alexander Jackson Davis (1803–1892) was a pioneering American architect whose imaginative designs helped define the nation's picturesque country house tradition. Born in New York City on July 24, 1803, Davis received an informal education, studying drawing at the American Academy of the Fine Arts, the New-York Drawing Association, and the antique casts at the National Academy of Design. He apprent...