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View of South Street, from Maiden Lane, New York City

ca. 1827
Not on view
Born and trained in London, Bennett learned well the conventions of the architectural and street views perfected by the Venetian artist Antonio Canaletto, who worked in England in the mid-eighteenth century. Immigrating to the United States about 1826, Bennett adapted the conventions to New York, then undergoing rapid urbanization with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. Unlike the Bennett watercolor, “Weehawken from Turtle Grove” (54.90.107) the topography here is entirely man-made, with the bustle of South Street mediating the forest of masts and the opposing palisade of warehouses. Bennett engraved this watercolor for “Megarey’s Street Views in the City of New-York” (1834).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: View of South Street, from Maiden Lane, New York City
  • Artist: William James Bennett (American, London 1787–1844 New York)
  • Date: ca. 1827
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor on off-white wove paper
  • Dimensions: 9 5/8 x 13 5/8 in. (24.4 x 34.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps, and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954
  • Object Number: 54.90.130
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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South St. from Maiden Lane, William James Bennett American, Aquatint
South St. from Maiden Lane
William James Bennett
Henry J. Megarey
1834
The Equinoctial off Sandy Hook (New York Mirror)
William James Bennett
before 1844
Fulton Street and Market, New York, William James Bennett American, Aquatint
Fulton Street and Market, New York
William James Bennett
Henry J. Megarey
1834
The Hay Sloops of the North River
William James Bennett
1843
A Brisk Gale, Bay of New York
William James Bennett
1839

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