View near Anthony's Nose by by Victor de Grailly (1804-1889)

View near Anthony's Nose
by Victor de Grailly (1804-1889)

Born in Paris in 1804, Victor de Grailly was a French landscape painter, whose oeuvre included many American views.  De Grailly’s first works were copies of seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes, but he also painted French scenes.

De Grailly’s most popular paintings were created after a series of engravings of American scenes by William Henry Bartlett.  Bartlett had been commissioned in 1836 by George Virtue, a successful London publisher, to record American landmarks including the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Niagara Falls, and the Hudson River Valley.  Published in 1837, Bartlett’s steel engravings of these sites met with widespread acclaim in England and America.  A number of artists based their works on Bartlett’s etchings, but de Grailly was the best and most prolific of them.  Although there is no evidence that de Grailly traveled to America, he created works that evoke their sites with a reality that makes us think that he did, indeed, visit the shores of the USA.

Anthony's Nose is a peak along the Hudson River at the north end of Westchester County, New York. Anthony's Nose, together with Dunderberg Mountain, comprises the South Gate of the Hudson Highlands.

This postcard, postmarked 'Providence RI' was sent by Carolann Hind in October 2013.