View from Long Island, Looking up the East River
Artist
Alexander Robertson
(American, born Scotland, 1768 - 1841)
Date1797
MediumPen and black ink on paper
DimensionsOverall: 8 5/8 x 11 3/8in. (21.9 x 28.9cm)
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, in Part with Funds from an Anonymous Gift, by Exchange
Terms
Object number91.5.a-b
DescriptionOn verso: Three landscape scenesOn View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextThe linear drawing style Robertson used for this landscape view is very similar to the linear style H. Fox Talbot used in his 1833 view of Lago Lecco, Italy (see p. 15 of Beaumont Newhall's History of Photography [1964]). Talbot's image was drawn with a camera lucida, which was invented by William H. Wollastoln about a decade after Robertson made this drawing. However, the formulaic quality of Robertson's image may be due to his use of some other kind of drawing device. A camera obscura was probably too bulky for him to carry around in the countryside but perhaps he used a Claude glass?
Paul D. Schweizer
March 2013
