Winter Scene in Brooklyn Revealed as the Newest Work in Crystal Bridges Museum’s Permanent Collection
December 5, 2008 – 8:10 am
Snowy landscape by Francis Guy appears on holiday greeting card
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 3, 2008 – A detail of an iconic nineteenth-century landscape by Francis Guy graces the front of the 2008 holiday card from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Winter Scene in Brooklyn, which depicts a busy street scene from the artist’s neighborhood, is the most recent work to be announced as part of the museum’s permanent collection. A section from the lower right-hand corner of this wintry landscape appears on the front of the card, and an image of the full painting appears on the back.
Winter Scene in Brooklyn was painted between 1818 and 1820 and is one of two large works that depict a view of Guy’s neighborhood from the second floor of his Brooklyn home. The view captures a section of Front Street between Main and Fulton Streets, in an area that is now under the Brooklyn Bridge. The other painting of this scene, also titled Winter Scene in Brooklyn, is part of the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection.
“Francis Guy’s Winter Scene in Brooklyn, a view from the artist’s window, documents a particular intersection in Brooklyn and celebrates growing national prosperity increasingly centered in the urban milieu and specifically in and around New York,” said Chris Crosman, chief curator for the museum. “Moreover, the painting suggests the origins of our unique national identity including a diversity of economic activities, social status, national origins and race.
”The painting is notable for its accurate depiction of the area’s architecture and its cultural diversity. The people in the painting are actual residents; in fact, some scholars believe that theman in the top hat in the lower center of the painting is a self-portrait of Guy with an easel under his arm. The cultural richness of the neighborhood is reflected by the people in the painting as well as in the architecture. People of varying ages, occupations and race are represented, including Dutch and African American. This area in Brooklyn was commonly thought to be the most developed part of the city at that time.
Although Guy was known as the “grandfather of American landscape painting,” he had no formal art training. He began painting in 1800 at a time when interest in landscape painting was still relatively new but growing. Guy’s style was a precursor to the Hudson River School, which became popular in the middle of the century. By then, landscape painting had become a significant part of American art.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Crystal Bridges is envisioned as a premier national art institution dedicated to American art and artists. Under construction in Bentonville, Ark., the museum complex will encompass approximately 100,000 square feet of gallery, library, meeting, and office space, a 250-seat indoor auditorium, areas for outdoor concerts and public events, as well as sculpture gardens and walking trails.
Crystal Bridges will house a permanent collection of signature works from American artists. The growing permanent collection is composed of paintings and sculptures from the Colonial period through the modern era. Some announced works in the permanent collection are: the Hudson River School masterwork Kindred Spirits by Asher B. Durand, which is currently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington (The Constable-Hamilton Portrait), which is currently on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand, currently on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the most extensive surviving group of Colonial American portraiture, the Levy-Franks family paintings, currently on loan to The Jewish Museum in New York City.
Crystal Bridges takes its name from a natural spring on the museum’s wooded site as well as the unique glass-and-wood building design created by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie. The 100-acre site of the museum complex and cultural center is located within walking distance of the Bentonville town square. For more information about Crystal Bridges, visit www.crystalbridges.org.
