View of a harbor filled with sail-boats with the high bluffs at the mouth of the harbor framing dramatic clouds. his drawing was copied after a well-known print. In this case the model was William Henry Bartlett’s image of a View from West Point reproduced in steel plate engraving in Nathaniel Parker Willis’s 1840 publication American Scenery.
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View from West Point

Maker unknown

about 1850–1900

Artwork Information

  • Title:

    View from West Point

  • Artist:

    Maker unknown

  • Artist Bio:

  • Date:

    about 1850–1900

  • Medium:

    Charcoal

  • Dimensions:

    15 7/8 x 20 7/8 inches

  • Credit Line:

    Wichita Art Museum, Gift of John C. Boldenow

  • Object Number:

    1997.25

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display

About the Artwork

This work is a good example of a popular art form practiced in the U.S. in the later half of the 19th century. The medium was commonly known by the misnomer “sandpaper painting” because of the granular texture of the finely ground marble-dust with which the drawing board was coated. Instructions for making “sandpaper paintings” appeared in popular journals. Like most works of its kind, this drawing was copied  The Wichita Art Museum’s drawing by an unknown amateur combines charming naiveté with a forceful decorative quality.