West Point (No. 16 of The Hudson River Portfolio)

The fort and military academy at West Point are viewed here from the opposite bank of the river. John Agg's related text tells us, "there is scarcely a traveler who has visited the Highlands, who has not concentrated his attention...on the situation and character of this nursery of military talent...and prolific fountain of future glory and security. Standing on a commanding elevation, in the centre of a panorama of mountains, no situation could be better calculated for all the purposes of abstract study. The rocks around it seem to form an eternal barrier against the intrusion of distracting temptations; the mountain air is propitious to bodily health; the unbroken calm which perpetually reigns, induces the mind to apply to those resources from necessity, which from inclination, it might less frequently place in requisition." The print comes from the Hudson River Portfolio, a monument of American printmaking produced through the collaboration of artists, a writer, and publishers. In the summer of 1820, the Irish-born Wall toured and sketched along the Hudson, then painted a series of large watercolors. Prints of equal scale were proposed—to be issued to subscribers in sets of four—and John Rubens Smith hired to work the plates. Almost immediately, Smith was replaced by the skilled London-trained aquatint engraver John Hill, who finished the first four plates, and produced sixteen more by 1825. Over the next decade, the popularity of the Portfolio stimulated new appreciation for American landscape, and prepared the way for the Hudson River School.