Brunswick, N. Jersey from the North

Period1796

MediumInk on paper

Dimensions7.5 × 12.6 in. (19.1 × 32 cm)

InscribedInscribed lower center, "Brunswick N. Jersey / from the North July 1796 / drawn by Archibald Robertson / Andrew J. Robertson." Also inscribed "No 8" in the upper left corner.

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Stephen C. Clark, Esq., in Memory of his Father, Alfred Corning Clark, 1936

Object number1994.571

DescriptionA view along a riverbank with a large five bay, two story, hip roof house on the right fronted by a full width porch supported by columns. Features of the house include two large chimneys, and a board and rail fence extending to its right. In front of the house is a stand of trees, several of which are willows. Two small row boats are tied to the shore to the left of the trees. Beyond them is a complex consisting of a dock with two sailing vessels tied up to it, and a three story warehouse. Two more row boats are drawn up on the river bank in front of the dock. Beyond it is a bridge with a lift span and a toll house on the right hand abuttment.
Curatorial RemarksSome of the notations on the drawing are apparently in the handwriting of Andrew J. Robertson, son of the Scottish born artist Archibald Robertson (1765 - 1835). See accession number 1995.552 for a second drawing by Robertson depicting the New Brunswick waterfront.NotesThis early Middlesex County view of the New Brunswick waterfront, looking south from a vantage point just north of what is now the Albany Street Bridge, documents the appearance of the city's Raritan River frontage before construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal between 1830 and 1834. The bridge, after several years of planning and construction, opened to traffic on 2 November 1795, only eight months before Archibald Robertson recorded the scene. All of the houses, warehouses and docks shown in the drawing were removed to make way for the canal bed, which ran parallel to the river through the city. When first built, the canal was 75 feet wide and 7 feet deep.

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