BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) – Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has acquired a 19th century Francis Gay painting showing the landscape of one of New York’s boroughs in the grip of winter.

Winter Scene in Brooklyn shows a snowy view of Front Street between Main and Fulton streets, an area now under the Brooklyn Bridge. The painting has a large pile of wood sitting in its center, as men in top hats and women in shawls walk along a snowy street under a gray winter sky.

The museum announced the acquisition in its 2008 holiday greeting card, putting a close-up image of the painting on its front and smaller picture on the back showing all of the painting.

The museum says some scholars believe that the man in a top hat with an easel under his arm in the lower center of the painting is Guy.

Crystal Bridges, founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, is set to open in 2010 in Bentonville.

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Information from: The Morning News, http://www.nwaonline.net/

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AP-WS-12-07-08 1630EST