The Bay of New York Looking to the Narrows and Staten Island, Taken from Brooklyn Heights
1820–25
Medium
Watercolor and gum arabic on white wove paper
Dimensions
21 x 27 1/16 in. (53.3 x 68.7 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
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
54.90.161
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling yet serene world of early 19th-century New with William Guy Wall's *The Bay of New York Looking the Narrows and Staten, Taken from Brooklyn Heights* (1820–25). This captivating watercolor, painted from the elevated vantage of Brooklyn Heights, offers a panoramic vista of New York Harbor, where sparkling waters meet distant Staten Island and the strategic Narrows passage. Wall, an Irish-born artist who became a leading figure in American landscape painting, masterfully captures boats dotting the bay against a vast sky, evoking the city's rapid growth as a maritime hub. R...
About the Artist
William Guy Wall · 1792–1864
William Guy Wall, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1792, arrived in New York in 1812 already well-trained as an artist, having honed his skills back home before emigrating. Little is documented about his formal instruction in Ireland, but his proficiency in watercolor positioned him immediately among the city's burgeoning artistic scene. Wall resided in America from 1812 to 1835 and again from 1856 to ...