New Bedford, Massachusetts
1860-1870
Medium
watercolor and gouache on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 29.85 × 67.63 cm (11 3/4 × 26 5/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Membership Association Fund)
Accession Number
2015.19.615
Art Historical Context
William Allen Wall's *New Bedford, Massachusetts*ca. 1860–1870) captures the bustling whaling port city on Massachusetts' South Coast during its golden age. Rendered in watercolor and gouache onove paper, this panoramic drawing measures nearly 68 cm wide, offering a sweeping vista likely encompassing harbors, ships, and warehouses that defined New Bedford as America's premier whaling hub until petroleum's rise in the 1860s. Wall, a 19th-century American artist known for precise topographic views of New England, skillfully blends translucent watercolors with the opaque vibrancy of gouache to ev...