The Old Washington House on Claypit Creek

Periodca. 1830 - 1840

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsSight: 20.3 × 27.3 in. (51.6 × 69.3 cm)

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Arthur Smith, 1931

Object number9

DescriptionThe artist stood on the shore of a creek looking across to an old house, the main section of which is two stories high surmounted by a square tower. To its left is a one and a half story wing. A columned porch appears across the front of both sections, and around the gable end of the larger part. The house is surrounded by five large Lombardy Poplar trees, and fronted by a stone wall near the shore of the creek, as well as a board fence. Other details include a barn partly seen behind the house, a martin house on a pole, a small outbuilding that might be a cold room or ice house, and a cow grazing just inside the fence. A high hill appears behind the farm. On the near shore are six fishermen. The three in the lower left corner have hung their nets to dry. One carries a basket of fish while holding one in the air. Another is enjoying a pipe. In the center a lone fisherman is helping two others in a rowboat to unload their nets and gear. A small sailboat in the right middle distance contains a male at the tiller, two women in bright clothing, and a small dog at the bow. A second sailboat appears in the distance beyong the point of land where the house sits. The colorful partly cloudy sky contains four flocks of birds in flight.
Curatorial RemarksThe area around Claypit Creek and the Navesink Highlands proved especially popular with a large number of talented professional artists in the nineteenth century and beyond. Among those who have left a visual record of the area are: Thomas Birch, John Kensett, James E. Buttersworth, Alfred T. Bricher, Granville Perkins, Francis A. Silva, William Hahn, Sanford Gifford, Childe Hassam, and Corwin Knapp Linson, to name just a few. No particular artist has ever been associated with this view of the Old Washington House. It may date as early as 1830 or 1840, judging by the height of the Lombardy Poplar trees. They peaked in popularity as an ornamental planting in the first decade or so of the nineteenth century. Even though this species can grow rapidly, these trees are clearly mature specimens. The genre scene aspects of the work, with groups of fisherman in the foreground going about their routine tasks while other people pass by in a sailboat, most resemble European counterparts of the period. This artist was especially skilled at landscape painting, down even to the house reflection in the creek, a break in the clouds allowing sunshine to dramatically highlight the yard and the Highlands in the background, and a warm, rosy-tinted afternoon sky. Assigned accession number 9, The Old Washington House on Claypit Creek was the first landscape painting acquired by the Association. It entered the collection on 2 October 1931, eighteen days before the organization's new museum in Freehold first opened to the public. Conservation treatment in 2018 revealed the rich color palette employed by the artist, hidden for decades under a thick layer of grime and severely darkened varnish.NotesThe old house depicted in this highly polished landscape painting was known as the Old Washington House, although before that it was owned by the Stephens family. The venerable structure sat off Hartshorne Road on Claypit Creek in the Locust section of Middletown Township, Monmouth County. The lower one and a half story section may be eighteenth century in date, while the larger section to its right appears to have been erected around 1800, with its square tower on the roof added later still. One occupant of this property was Henry Stephens Washington (1867 - 1934), a long-time resident of Locust who became renowned for his geological studies and classifications of igneous rocks. He was the son of George Washington and Eleanor Stephens. His mother's parents also lived in the Locust area, where young Harry (as he was called) grew up. The house burned in 1938. Its ruins were removed in 1941 by Edwin Banfield of Middletown. The hills behind the farm are a western spur of the Highlands of Navesink.

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