Landscape with a Mill
Artist
Hugh Reinagle
(American, 1788 - 1834)
Date1818
MediumSepia wash and graphite on paper
DimensionsOverall: 7 7/8 × 9in. (20 × 22.9cm)
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number82.3
Description On View
Not on viewLabel TextReinagle was a Philadelphia-born theatrical scene painter, drawing master and painter of landscapes, historical compositions and portraits. Few firmly documented works by him are known. This vigorously rendered drawing, signed and dated by the artist, is a rare surviving exception. It was made the year Reinagle returned to Philadelphia after spending the previous two in Albany, NY where ran a drawing academy and worked as a scene painter. After returning to Philadelphia, Reinagle published an advertisement in Paxton's Philadelphia Directory inviting the public to visit his studio to view the "great variety of interesting views of various places in the United States." This picturesque mill scene may be one of the views referred to in this advertisement. The work's inked border and Reinagle's signature and date suggest he considered the drawing a finished work of art. Other views relating to this series might possibly include the views of Niagara, the Hudson River and the environs of New York City that he exhibited in 1818 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The Museum's drawing was executed on the back of a fragment of a map published by Simeon De Witt in 1802. The printing on the verso charts the border between the United States and Canada in the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River.
Paul Schweizer, Ph.D.
Director and Chief Curator
January 2006
