Upper Falls of Solomon's Creek (after an Engraving in The Port Folio Magazine, December 1809)
1811–ca. 1813
Medium
Watercolor and gouache on white laid paper
Dimensions
7 1/8 x 5 3/8 in. (18.1 x 13.7 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1942
Accession Number
42.95.42
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing, *Upper Falls of Solomon's* is a captivating watercolor and gouache on white laid paper by Pavel Petrovichvinin, created between 1811 and about 1813. This intimate work, measuring just 7 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches, faithfully reproduces an engraving from the December 1809 issue *The Port Folio*, a prominent Philadelphia periodical that showcased American landscapes and promoted national pride. Svinin's rendition captures the dramatic cascade of the falls along Solomon's Creek in Pennsylvania, evoking the raw beauty of early 19th-century America...
About the Artist
Pavel Petrovich Svinin · 1787–1839
Pavel Petrovich Svinin (1787–1839) was a Russian diplomat, writer, and amateur artist whose visual record of early American life constitutes one of the most vivid and historically valuable documentary accounts of the United States in the early nineteenth century. Born in Russia in 1787, Svinin received a broad education and pursued a career in the Russian foreign service, which brought him to the ...