[OIL PAINTING OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND]

Book Description

[ca. 1840].. Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches. Titled in shaded red block letters lower center: BALTIMORE. Bearing signature lower right: "W H Bartlett." Provenance: Kennedy Galleries (label); Collection of Edward Eberstadt & Sons. Original canvas and stretcher, in excellent condition. A beautiful and richly colored painting, this view of Baltimore Harbor is based on the print of Baltimore in William Henry Bartlett’s 1840 view book, AMERICAN SCENERY... Bartlett painted Baltimore quite fancifully, giving it the Levantine look found in his other American cityscape (his view of Boston is very similar to this picture). The city appears as a magnificent white pyramid of shimmering buildings, towers, smokestacks, and statues rising over the harbor, a few commercial and pleasure crafts at sail. The painting is close in perspective and detail to French marine artist Louis Le Breton's 1840 engraving of Baltimore Harbor, which also gives the appearance of a Middle Eastern city. Bartlett, London-born painter, watercolorist, draftsman, engraver, is thought to have exhibited at the Royal Academy, circa 1831-34. An intrepid traveler, his lifetime itinerary included visits to the Balkans, the Near East and edges of the Orient, North America, and, finally, death in a shipwreck off Marseilles. He is best remembered today for AMERICAN SCENERY (1840) and its companion CANADIAN SCENERY (1842), based on his travels in America after 1836. Bartlett travelled extensively in Canada and America, sketching and painting the principal cities and famous scenic vistas of North America for publication in the view books. A slightly larger version of this painting of Baltimore is exhibited by the Maryland Historical Society. WHO WAS WHO IN AMERICAN ART (Madison, Ct.: Soundview Press, 1999), Vol. 1, p.225. BENEZIT (Grund, 2006), Vol. 1, p.1235.

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