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Collect Pond, New York City

Attributed to Archibald Robertson American, Scottish
Former Attribution Formerly attributed to Alexander Robertson American
1798
Not on view
The natural pool Collect Pond was formerly located in lower Manhattan near present-day Foley Square. Robertson’s watercolor of the site exemplifies the formulaic method of drawing taught at the Columbian Academy of Painting in New York City, founded by the artist and his brother Alexander. Both the hill at left and the willow tree at right are rendered in highly stylized fashion, with broad contours and schematic curving lines. Spatial depth was achieved with swaths of dark wash in the foreground setting of the lighter forms in the distance. Indeed, the whole picture observes a kind of artistic etiquette embodied in the polite company of figures in the foreground.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Collect Pond, New York City
  • Artist: Attributed to Archibald Robertson (American, Moneymusk, Scotland 1765–1835 New York)
  • Former Attribution: Formerly attributed to Alexander Robertson (1772–1841)
  • Date: 1798
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor and black chalk on off-white laid paper
  • Dimensions: 17 3/4 x 23 1/16 in. (45.1 x 58.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps, and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954
  • Object Number: 54.90.168
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Portrait of a Gentleman, Archibald Robertson American, Scottish, Watercolor on ivory, American
Portrait of a Gentleman
Archibald Robertson
ca. 1795
New York
Archibald Robertson
ca. 1796
William Loughton Smith, Archibald Robertson American, Scottish, Watercolor on ivory, American
William Loughton Smith
Archibald Robertson
ca. 1795
James Smith Livingston, Archibald Robertson American, Scottish, Watercolor on ivory, American
James Smith Livingston
Archibald Robertson
ca. 1795
Pierre Van Cortlandt Jr., Archibald Robertson American, Scottish, Watercolor on ivory, American
Pierre Van Cortlandt Jr.
Archibald Robertson
ca. 1795

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