Winter Scene in Brooklyn represents "the most important and compact portion of Brooklyn as it stood in 1820. [It] will forever be invaluable as exhibiting the architectural character of the village at that period; and, in some degree for half a century previous."¹ In fact, the architectural character exhibited here reveals a place in transition from an eighteenth-century village with an eclectic, irregular arrangement of buildings -including a farm, substantial Federal-style homes, and mixed-use buildings providing both living and business space -to a more modern, more urbanized town. The wood and coal piles in the foreground denote the moment of transition from wood- to coal-burning stoves and document the need for coal for the newly established steam ferry between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Along the hillside at the far right can be seen the newer buildings of Brooklyn Heights, the emerging modern suburb that was developing because of the easier access to Manhattan provided by the ferry.

The scene depicts Front Street from Main Street (on the left) to Fulton (on the right), an area now partially covered by approaches to the Brooklyn Bridge and a section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. A few blocks inland from the East River and the Fulton Ferry slip, this picturesque neighborhood occupied land that was once part of a farm belonging to a Loyalist family named Rapalje. It was next used as the British Quartermaster's Yard during the Revolution and then, after the introduction of the Brooklyn-Manhattan ferry service in the second decade of the nineteenth century, became known as the ferry district of the village of Brooklyn. The poplar trees visible on the hill are in Brooklyn Heights.

Some of Brooklyn's finest dwellings stood on Front Street in the early nineteenth century. Physician, genealogist, and local historian Henry Stiles (1832 -1909) developed a key for a similar version of this scene, in which he identified all the buildings as well as many of the figures, who were local citizens.² Stiles acquired this information from Thomas W. Birdsall, owner of the hardware store and two-story white frame house situated at the right. Visible at the center of the canvas are the barn and slaughterhouse of butcher Abiel Titus, seen feeding his chickens. Across the yard from the barn is the Titus residence. Behind the barn stands a blacksmith shop belonging to Edward Cooper. Across the street is the home and carpenter shop of Benjamin Meeker. To the right of Birdsall's store, which also served as the neighborhood post office, stands the shoe and bootmaker shop of Rydll and Seamer. Recognizable full-length portraits of Messrs. Sands, Graham, Birdsall, Hicks, Meeker, Patchen, and Judge Garrison were incorporated into the tableau by Francis Guy, artist of the original work from which this was copied. Tradition has it that while working near his window, he would call out to friends and passersby, asking them to stand still while he captured their characteristic postures.

In the 1820s the population of Kings County, of which Brooklyn was a part, numbered more than 11,000, including approximately 1,700 black residents. At that date there were probably few, if any, slaves in Brooklyn, as Unitarianism, the dominant religion in the community, proscribed slavery.

The many occupations depicted in the painting emphasize that this Brooklyn neighborhood is a thriving community. Its diverse inhabitants pursue a variety of everyday activities: gathering wood, drawing water from the town pump, making deliveries, and pausing to gossip. Pedestrians share the streets with drays, sleighs, wheelbarrows, horses, dogs, and farm animals. The man crossing the street on the left appears to be carrying freshly butchered meat, while the man to the right of the pack of dogs holds surveyor's tools, perhaps a reference to the laying out of streets and roads in the newly expanding community. In 1861 the poet Walt Whitman commented that the scene was "altogether a picture quite curious to stand on the same spot and think of now."³

Francis Guy made several versions of this scene, some featuring the same location in summer and at least one without any people. This painting is a copy, probably of the Guy rendering at the Brooklyn Museum, by Louisa Ann Coleman, granddaughter of Augustus Graham, a founder of the Apprentices' Library, which was a forerunner of the Brooklyn Museum.⁴ In this painting Graham stands with his back toward his residence at left, in conversation with Joshua Sands. Coleman married Joseph Byron Hayes in 1861 and moved to Canandaigua, New York.⁵ Several of her very competent paintings, possibly also copies of others' work, are in the possession of her descendants.

Notes

1  Henry R. Stiles, A History of the City of Brooklyn (Brooklyn: published by subscription, 1869), vol. 2, pp. 88 -89.

2  Ibid., pp. 88 -89.

3  Walt Whitman, "A Snow Scene in Brooklyn," in Walt Whitman's New York, ed. Henry M. Christman (New York: Macmillan, 1963), pp. 19 -20.

4  The painting at the Brooklyn Museum, at one time owned by Augustus Graham, was damaged in a fire and is missing several inches along its left side. Otherwise, Coleman's copy is almost identical.

5  Professor Alfred Kohler searched through genealogical records and city directories for two years, finally locating descendants of Coleman. They were able to provide documentation of her artistic activity and of family ownership of the painting prior to its entering the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.