William MacLeod, View Of The City Of Washington From The Anacostia Shore, 1856. Estimate $150,000–250,000.
American Art
2 October | New York
American Art
2 October | New York
The City in the Distance
Visible in the distance are several monuments that would have been present in Washington D. C. at this time as a result of the ‘L’Enfant Plan’ architectural plan. From left to right MacLeod depicts the half-completed Washington Monument, the Department of the Treasury, the Norman style “Castle” of the Smithsonian Institution that was completed one year earlier, the original flat dome of the Capitol, which was replaced with the present dome in 1863, and the Navy Yard.
American Art
2 October | New York
The River
The Anacostia River flows about 8.5 miles from Maryland into Washington, D. C. where it joins the Potomac River before eventually emptying in Chesapeake Bay. Its name derives from its origins as Nacotchtank, settlement to the Anacostan Native Americans, a group of Algonquin natives that settled in the D. C. area. The river's name means roughly “village trading center.”
American Art
2 October | New York
A Self-Portait
The figure sketching in the foreground is believed to be a self-portrait of the artist. William MacLeod was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1811 and then studied art in New York City, first exhibiting at the American Art Union, and traveling the eastern coastline painting landscapes. By 1856 MacLeod was living Washington, D.C., which would become his permanent home.
American Art
2 October | New York
Revealing Placement of Livestock
The artist painted another version of View of the City of Washington from the Anacostia Shore in 1856, which is in the collection of The White House, Washington, D.C. It varies slightly from the present work in the placement of the cows and the inclusion of an umbrella next to the figure sketching in the foreground.
American Art
2 October | New York
Nature as Transcendence
During his studies, MacLeod developed a style in keeping with the Hudson River School tradition. His dramatic depictions of the American landscape carry spiritual and metaphoric significance in keeping with the Romanticism of Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church.
American Art
2 October | New York
A variety of historically fascinating details fill William MacLeod’s 1856 View Of The City Of Washington From The Anacostia Shore. A Virginia-native, MacLeod would go on to become the first Curator of Painting at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from 1873 to 1889. His deep passion for the city was well-known and he was a longstanding witness to its history, having seen the burning of Washington by the British in 1814; the city's strategic position during the Civil War; and through to its growth into the nation’s capital based on the architectural plan of French-American military engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant. To discover five interesting elements of this 19th-century view of the nation's capitol, click ahead.