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The Highlands of the Neversink and the Twin Lights
The Highlands of the Neversink and the Twin Lights
The Highlands of the Neversink and the Twin Lights

The Highlands of the Neversink and the Twin Lights

Artist
PeriodAfter 1872
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions20 × 30 in. (50.8 × 76.2 cm)
ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life
Credit LineMarshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1985
Object number1985.14.1
DescriptionView over a river looking toward hills that are partly cleared and partly wooded. A double brown stone light house with a wall and structure between them sits at the top of the near highlands. Nine hotels, boarding houses, small residences, and a dock are depicted along the far shore of the river. The foreground consists of a grassy bank with some scrub growth in front of a railroad track that passes across the painting. Some of the undergrowth has just been cut and stacked. A group of people are standing on a dock to the right, with two small row boats filled with people. A sailboat is tied up on the opposite side of the dock. Two men in red shirts are digging for shellfish on a sandbar to the left, with a row boat tied up to the bar. A male and female figure are positioned in the center foreground, the male standing. A sailing vessel with a dingy in tow is heading to the right in the center of the river. A small steamboat has just departed from the dock on the far shore. Two other small sailboats are shown on the river close to the opposite shore. The sky is a light blue with small clouds to the left, and a cloud bank on the right.
Curatorial RemarksComparison of the painting with the engraving shows many details included in the engraving but omitted or modified in the painting, such as the number of boats on the river.NotesThe painting depicts a view of the Highlands of the Navesink and Twin Lights as seen looking northwest from the bay side of Sea Bright. It is based on the engraving The Highlands of the Neversink by William Wellstood after the watercolor by Granville Perkins which appeared in Picturesque American by William Cullen Bryant (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1872), vol. 1, p. 176. The distant mountains to the right of Twin Lights are an artistic fiction as that area is occupied by Sandy Hook Bay.
Collections
ProvenancePurchased at a Sotheby's auction in New York of the Collection of Abram R. and Blanche M. Harpending, sale number 5296 held on 1 February 1985, lot number 575. The Harpendings had acquired it from a Philadelphia antiques dealer.