Lot 253: L. Meyer (American, active 1836)

A View of New York harbor with battery park to the right and vessels approaching Castle Garden, Trinity church in the distance
signed and dated 'L. Meyer/1836' (lower right) and inscribed 'original oil painting by L. Meyer 1836 New York Battery and Harbor/One of the finest early New York paintings we have seen' on an exhibition label affixed to the reverse.
oil on canvas
15 x 21 1/2 (38 x 54.6 cm.)
painted in 1836

This painting depicts a bustling New York harbor in 1836. Battery park with tiny detailed figures along the shore appears to the right with a two masted schooner being towed by a paddle wheel tug. These vessels are approaching Castle Garden with buildings beyond, and Trinity church in the distance. At the center of the composition is an early paddle wheel steamer flying the American flag. The vessel is filled with figures in colorful period dress. To the left and beyond is a black hulled three-masted paddle wheeler with the hills of New Jersey in the distance. Passing Castle Garden is a white hulled sidewheeler docked with an abundance of sailing ship, their masts visible in the distance as they cluster together. Most of the early Hudson steamboats were equipped with auxiliary sails arranged in abbeviated brig rig, but by 1825 the engine had become more reliable enough to permit sailing bare and designers began to omit the sails entirely. Ocean-going steamboats, however, were to retain their auxiliary sails for another sixty years,
The Husdon run was a profitable route, connecting the largest cities in America with New England and Canada through Lake Champlain and with the rapidly developing Midwest via the Erie Canal and later the railroads. From New York connecting steamboats ran to the New England coast and the Chesapeake, where ocean packets both sail and steam left for the ports of the world.
Meyer was one of a family of artists in New York who produced "Meyer's Universum" a series of views of American cities with descriptive text.