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canvas 20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm) painted circa 1835 provenance Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York Knoedler Gallery Inc., New York H. Richard Dietrich, Jr., (during whose ownership this painting was on long-term loan to the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, Philadelphia) Christie~dq~s, New York, May 31, 1985, 20 Glen S. Foster, NEW YORK Literature William H. Gerdts, Thomas Birch: 1779-1851 Paintings and Drawings, Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 1966. p. 35, no. 33 (illustrated) William H. Gerdts, "Thomas Birch: America~dq~s First Marine Artist," Antiques, April 1966, p. 532 (illustrated) Related works Thomas Birch, new york harbor, 1830s, oil on canvas, 201/4 x 301/4 inches, Museum of Fine Arts, boston, m. and m. karolik collection of american paintings Thomas Birch painted A View of New York Harbor in the early 1830~dq~s shortly after the completion of the Erie Canal, which opened up America~dq~s heartland and made New York the nation~dq~s entrep(t. Birch painted nearly as many scenes of the burgeoning port of New York as he did of the port of Philadelphia and the Delaware River. In his harbor scenes, he details the landmarks of the shoreline, but this serves only as a background for the artist~dq~s real interest, the lively traffic of sail, rowing and early steam upon the waters of New York Harbor. Birch favored the broad panoramas with dramatic atmospheric and lighting effects. Birch painted A View of New York Harbor from a point off the Brooklyn foreshore looking Northwest back towards Manhattan Island with the two most famous landmarks of the day, Castle Williams on Governors Island and Castle Garden on the tip of Manhattan Island in the far distance. The spire of Trinity Church shows beyond Castle Garden. In Birch~dq~s time, Castle Williams was a well-known landmark. Named for, and designed by, Jonathan Williams, the first superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, the circular fort was the first example of the casemate system of fortification in the U.S., which allowed for a multiple level fort that could bring more guns to bear on a passing enemy. The fort was obsolete after the War of 1812 as the Narrows between Upper and Lower New York Bay were fortified. Castle Garden, known as Castle Clinton, was leased by the city of New York in 1824 and soon became one of the favored "places of resort" in Birch~dq~s day. In A View of New York Harbor we can see the blend of both topographical and romantic tradition that makes Birch~dq~s harbor views so appealing.