View of Castle Garden and New York Bay
Date1869
Artist
Harry Fenn
(American painter and illustrator, 1837–1911)
Illustration CitationArt Supplement to Appletons' Journal of Literature, Science, and Art, May 15, 1869
MediumWood engraving
Dimensionscomposition: 8 3/16 × 25 13/16 in. (20.8 × 65.6 cm)
sheet: 11 1/8 x 29 5/8 in. (28.3 x 75.2 cm)
sheet: 11 1/8 x 29 5/8 in. (28.3 x 75.2 cm)
Credit LineFound in collection
Object number1900-11
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextBorn near London, Harry Fenn began his career as an apprentice with the Brothers Dalziel, the leading Victorian wood engraving firm. In 1857 he settled in New York City and soon found work in his trade. After European travels for painting study in the mid-1860s, he concentrated on illustration upon his return.His first success was a commission to illustrate John Greenleaf Whittier's poem Snow-Bound published by Boston's Ticknor and Fields in 1867, often considered first gift book published in America. Fenn is best known for his illustrations in Appleton and Co.’s books Picturesque America (1872–74), Picturesque Europe (1875–79), and Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt (1881–84). While he was not the sole illustrator he was the most prolific. His innovative page designs and combinations of image and text broke new ground and set a new stylistic standard for illustration. Much of his work intersected with a new American curiosity about foreign lands, and pride in the country's own landscape, cities, and scientific advances.
Fenn was also a contributor to major book and magazine publishers, especially Harper's and Scribner’s. There, he continued his illustrations for poetry and literary anthologies, as well as for scenes of landscape, architecture, and plant life.He adjusted to changing printing technology and eventually produced watercolors for reproduction as halftones.
