View Near Perth Amboy

Artist Thomas Birch

Periodca. 1840 - 1850

MediumOil on wood panel

Dimensions11.2 × 20 in. (28.4 × 50.8 cm)

SignedSigned lower right, "T. Birch."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. William C. Riker, 1948

Object number3257

DescriptionView in the foreground of two male figures on a beach getting ready to launch a small row boat. One dressed in brown pants, tan vest, and white shirt is carrying two oars, and the other in blue pants, red shirt, and tan vest is pushing the boat into the water. Both wear black hats. In the right middle distance is a two-story house with one chimney on a point of land that is surrounded by a columned porch. There is a two-part barn to the right behind the house, and a cribbed dock in front of it where a two-masted vessel is tied up. Three vessels appear on the river - a single-masted vessel in the left middle distance towing a row boat, two men in a row boat between it and the dock, and a single masted vessel in the far distance making its way along a wooded shoreline. The artist has placed a gnarled tree at the extreme right edge of the painting. A small reedy island of sedge appears in the water just beyond it.
Curatorial RemarksAn interesting view that could be along the Raritan River, New York Bay, or the Arthur Kill in the vicinity of Perth Amboy, Middlesex County. This area, shown as a pastoral landscape, became highly industrialized following the Civil War.

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