New Year's Day in Old New York, from "The Graphic" Christmas Number

George Henry Boughton

December 2, 1882 · Color wood engraving · Drawings and Prints

Boughton made his name with American colonial subjects and exhibited examples in London and New York from the 1860s through the 1890s. The present image from 1882, imagines New York shortly after the British took over from the Dutch in 1675 (in 1876 Boughton had painted "New Year’s Day in New Amsterdam," set around 1640). "The Graphic" chose this subject for a color-printed wood engraving, one of those they published annually as a premium for readers at Christmas, and the image centers on a young man who lifts his plumed hat to kiss a young woman wearing a ruff, fur-edged cape and muff. On April 3, 1870 "Harper's Weekly" reissued the print in New York, an indication of how British prints were often quickly recirculated by American publishers.

Artist

George Henry Boughton

Date

December 2, 1882

Medium

Color wood engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Donato Esposito, 2015