Label Text:
In 1820 William Guy Wall traveled up the Hudson River with Philadelphia author and poet John Agg, who sketched views and took notes on the places they visited for the commentary he would write to accompany the plates. Wall then collaborated—for a second time— with master engraver John Hill to produce a total of twenty plates for the Hudson River Portfolio, issued in five parts in the early 1820s. This was the most lavish landscape portfolio published in America, and it reached an elite audience of about 300. Although no fortifications are depicted, this view recalls Fort Montgomery as an important fortification attacked by the British in October 1777. Although the Americans lost the battle, the engagement delayed the British march northward to Saratoga, which made American victory there possible. John Agg commented that the subject “combines historical interest with picturesque beauty.”
Georgia Barnhill, 2014
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1951.55 |
