Lot 209D email save

BECK, George. Philadelphia from the Great Tree at

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London: Atkins & Nightingale, 1801. Aquatint engraved by T. Cartwright, hand-colored (470 x 615 mm). On paper watermarked "1794 J. Whatman." Condition: tissue-backed, closing several tears in the image. Provenance: Martin P. Snyder. Noted British artist George Beck arrived in America in 1795 seeking new vistas for his well known bucolic landscapes. After settling briefly in Baltimore, he opened a studio in Philadelphia in c. 1799. Perhaps seeing William and Thomas Birch's study for the frontispiece to City of Philadelphia, or perhaps simply in the tradition of Benjamin West, Beck prepared this impressive view of the city. Among the earliest and most desirable separately-issued views from Kensington, the Treaty Elm dominates. "Perhaps the grandiose propostions and fertile appearance of the tree were meant by the artist to project something of the vitality and growth that had characterized Philadelphia's early history" (Deak). Unlike Birch's view, the foreground is uncluttered and the absence of tall masted ships in the harbor gives a better depiction of the young city. This aquatint was part of a series of six prints issued by Atkins and Nightingale between 1801 and 1808. Stokes refers to each in the series as "very rare." Deak 229; Snyder, MOA 580; Stokes & Haskell, p. 46.

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