Picturesque Views of American Scenery - photo 1
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Picturesque Views of American Scenery

Lot 72
16.06.2023 16:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 163 800
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
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Archive
ID 965134
Lot 72 | Picturesque Views of American Scenery
Estimate value
$ 150 000 – 250 000
Picturesque Views of American Scenery
Joshua Shaw & John Hill, 1820
SHAW, Joshua (1776-1860) and HILL, John (1770-1850). Picturesque Views of American Scenery. Philadelphia: Matthew Carey & Son, 1820[-1821].

Fine, complete and hand-colored first edition copy, untrimmed in original wrappers.

"A milestone in American printmaking ... a foundation book for American color-plate publication, being the first publication in the United States of large colored landscapes essentially scenic in effect" (Koke). Also called the "first systematic attempt to record the New World's landscape" (Deák) to the level of European representation. The title page is the usual second state, with Carey's name in the imprint and the date re-worked in the plate from 1819 to 1820. The very rare first issue bore the name of the original intended publisher, Moses Thomas, but Thomas did not make it so far as to publish any of the views. The "1819" date is clearly visible under 1820, and more than one reader has apparently mistaken it for 1829. The aquatint engravings are of a quality unprecedented to this time. The Picturesque Views "directed attention to [John Hill] as a master of the mysterious medium of aquatint wherein his American predecessors were by comparison mere dabblers" (Koke).

"Known as 'The Landscape Album,' this portfolio of views was a collaboration between the artist Joshua Shaw and the aquatint engraver John Hill. Although both men had only recently arrived from England when they undertook the work, Shaw felt sufficiently Americanized to speak in the first person when he wrote: 'Our country abounds with Scenery, comprehending all the varieties of the sublime, the beautiful, and the picturesque in nature, worthy to engage the skill of an Artist….' Each plate seeks to convey the unique spirit of place of disparate locations throughout the United States. Although the scenery was American, the romantic sensibility behind it was indicative of the European background and training of its creators" (America Pictured to the Life). As noted by Deák, the "quiet charm of Shaw's pioneer work" was an important influence on the Hudson River School. America Pictured to the Life 5 (illustrated on the jacket front cover); Deák 315; Howes S-345 ("c"); Koke, Checklist of John Hill 37-56, Sabin 79935; Reese Stamped with a National Character 5.

Three parts, broadsheet folio (564 x 385mm). 20 aquatint engraved plates, including the title-page; each with facing leaf of letterpress text (a little toning, text with pale minor foxing, tissue guards foxed, a little pale offsetting from text to pl. 4, marginal spot to pl. 13, a pale corner dampstain in part 2 which affects one text leaf, text and plate corners a trifle worn). Original blue printed wrappers, with title and part nos. on front covers and publisher's advertisements on back and inside covers, prospectus for the present work on inside front wrapper of part 2 (backstrips chipped off and some small chips to edges, part 2 with large blank area torn from front wrapper, large repaired tear to back wrapper, and sewing nearly perished); modern chemises with printed labels for each part, housed in a half morocco solander box. Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 19 June 2008, lot 30.Shaw, Joshua
Hill, John
Hudson River Valley
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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16.06.2023
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