The Vigilant Stuyvesant's Wall Street Gate

This scene depicting the triumphant return of Peter Stuyvesant and his trumpeter Antony Van Corlear from an expedition against the Swedes on the Delaware in 1655 is taken from Washington Irving's "History of New York . . . by Diedrich Knickerbocker." Quidor had attempted to execute a series of pictures illustrating Irving's "History," including "Peter Stuyvesant’s Journey up the Hudson River" and "The Voyage of the Good Oloffe to Hell Gate from Communipaw" (Wichita Art Museum). Quidor’s caricatural talents, manifest in the throngs of impish children and the appearance of the burghers, compliment Irving's satirical tone. The artist often borrowed from engravings of works by English artists such as William Hogarth, whose paintings are evoked here in the uproarious mood of the thinly painted, almost monochromatic scene. Unstable pigments have caused heavy deterioration of the paint surface, obscuring the date of execution, which is placed, on stylistic grounds, in the 1860s.