The Palisades

By the 1860s Hill had adopted the hatching and stippling technique used by the British and Ameri¬can Pre-Raphaelites. Dictated by John Ruskin’s prescription for “truth to nature,” Hill also began to work outdoors in broad daylight, which produced a tonal equivalence between foreground and background in his watercolors. For this reason—and because the Pre-Raphaelite artists suppressed evidence of brushstrokes—his work often appears photographic. As a Pre-Raphaelite, Hill favored a high, nearly unbroken, horizon that emphasized topographical features at the expense of sky and atmosphere. The viewpoint of this watercolor is said to be the former estate of Christian H. Lilienthal of Yonkers, looking north to the house and property of William S. Cochran at right, with the Palisades across the Hudson River at left.