Collect Pond, New York City

Alexander Robertson|Archibald Robertson

1798 · Watercolor and black chalk on off-white laid paper · The American Wing

The natural pool Collect Pond was formerly located in lower Manhattan near present-day Foley Square. Robertson’s watercolor of the site exemplifies the formulaic method of drawing taught at the Columbian Academy of Painting in New York City, founded by the artist and his brother Alexander. Both the hill at left and the willow tree at right are rendered in highly stylized fashion, with broad contours and schematic curving lines. Spatial depth was achieved with swaths of dark wash in the foreground setting of the lighter forms in the distance. Indeed, the whole picture observes a kind of artistic etiquette embodied in the polite company of figures in the foreground.

Artist

Alexander Robertson|Archibald Robertson

Date

1798

Medium

Watercolor and black chalk on off-white laid paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps, and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954