View Near Hudson (No. 15 (later No. 12) of The Hudson River Portfolio)
Etcher John Hill American, born England
after William Guy Wall Irish
Publisher Henry J. Megarey American
Not on view
To accurately replicate a descent of the Hudson from north to south, this print should appear as number 12 rather than number 15 within the Portfolio. John Agg's related text tells us "the view was taken about a mile to the south of the city of Hudson, on the edge of the turnpike road leading to New-York...the Catskill mountains are seen in the distance, and the wooded elevation on the left is Mount Merino." The print comes from the Hudson River Portfolio, a monument of American printmaking produced through the collaboration of artists, a writer, and publishers. In the summer of 1820, the Irish-born Wall toured and sketched along the Hudson, then painted a series of large watercolors. Prints of equal scale were proposed—to be issued to subscribers in sets of four—and John Rubens Smith hired to work the plates. Almost immediately, Smith was replaced by the skilled London-trained aquatint engraver John Hill, who finished the first four plates, and produced sixteen more by 1825. Over the next decade, the popularity of the Portfolio stimulated new appreciation for American landscape, and prepared the way for the Hudson River School.
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