Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

In 1821 George Youle built his first shot tower on the banks of the East River just north of 53rd Street, but a few months later it collapsed.¹ The replacement depicted in this painting, built in 1823, was probably designed by John McComb, Jr. (1763 -1853).² It was so strong that demolition was difficult a hundred years later.³ The small inlet in front of the tower provided a landing place for boats conveying prisoners and hospital patients to the Charity Hospital, Alms-House, Work-House, and other institutions on Blackwell's Island.⁴

Jasper Cropsey received architectural training in the New York office of Joseph Trench. He worked as an architect before his 1844 election as an associate of the National Academy of Design turned him toward a highly successful career as a landscape painter (he was elected full academician seven years later). This early example of his work in oils combines his knowledge of architecture with the respectfully realistic representation of nature typical of America's second-generation Hudson River School painters, among whom Cropsey emerged as a leading figure. Four similar views of the tower (including this one and another in the Museum's collection) by Cropsey, as well as many prints of the site, indicate the popularity of the pastoral setting among artists of the period.⁵

Notes:

1 Shot towers were used in manufacturing shot or bullets. Molten lead was poured through a sieve from the summit, hardening into balls as it descended into a reservoir of water.

2 A label on the back of the painting, now removed and in the Museum Archives, quotes McComb's account book of 1822: "For Plans and directions for building a shot tower."

3 A. Everett Peterson, in Landmarks of New York (New York: City History Club, 1923), p. 73, related: "So strongly was the tower built that when the present owner of the property contracted for its demolition a few years ago, the contractor gave up the job after removing the upper portion; so the base to a height of about ten feet still remains."

4 According to an unidentified, undated typescript in the Museum Archives.

5 One of the paintings is at the New-York Historical Society. The other belongs to the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, which owns and manages Cropsey's home and studio in Hastings, New York.


Youle's Shot Tower 1844 Jasper Cropsey (1823 -1900) Oil on canvas, 24 X 201/2 Gift of Mrs. Josephine Barker, 81.4
In 1821 George Youle built his first shot tower on the banks of the East River just north of 53rd Street, but a few months later it collapsed.¹ The replacement depicted in this painting, built in 1823, was probably designed by John McComb, Jr. (1763 -1853).² It was so strong that demolition was difficult a hundred years later.³ The small inlet in front of the tower provided a landing place for boats conveying prisoners and hospital patients to the Charity Hospital, Alms-House, Work-House, and other institutions on Blackwell's Island.⁴ Jasper Cropsey received architectural training in the New York office of Joseph Trench. He worked as an architect before his 1844 election as an associate of the National Academy of Design turned him toward a highly successful career as a landscape painter (he was elected full academician seven years later). This early example of his work in oils combines his knowledge of architecture with the respectfully realistic representation of nature typical of America's second-generation Hudson River School painters, among whom Cropsey emerged as a leading figure. Four similar views of the tower (including this one and another in the Museum's collection) by Cropsey, as well as many prints of the site, indicate the popularity of the pastoral setting among artists of the period.⁵ Notes: 1 Shot towers were used in manufacturing shot or bullets. Molten lead was poured through a sieve from the summit, hardening into balls as it descended into a reservoir of water. 2 A label on the back of the painting, now removed and in the Museum Archives, quotes McComb's account book of 1822: "For Plans and directions for building a shot tower." 3 A. Everett Peterson, in Landmarks of New York (New York: City History Club, 1923), p. 73, related: "So strongly was the tower built that when the present owner of the property contracted for its demolition a few years ago, the contractor gave up the job after removing the upper portion; so the base to a height of about ten feet still remains." 4 According to an unidentified, undated typescript in the Museum Archives. 5 One of the paintings is at the New-York Historical Society. The other belongs to the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, which owns and manages Cropsey's home and studio in Hastings, New York.