The privileged nineteenth-century American's experience of the sublime in the landscape occurred on the heights. The characteristic viewpoint of contemporary American landscapists traced a visual trajectory from the uplands to a scenic panorama below. . . . The experience on the heights and its literary and aesthetic translation became assimilated to popular culture and remained and continues to remain a fundamental component of the national dream. As such, it is inseparable from nationalist ideology. . . . [T]here is an American viewpoint in landscape painting that can be identified with this characteristic line of vision . . . [;] this peculiar gaze represents not only a visual line of sight but an ideological one as well. . . . [The] view from the summit metaphorically undercut the past and blazed a trail into the wilderness for 'the abodes of commerce and the seats of manufactures.'"
--from Albert Boime, The Magisterial Gaze: Manifest Destiny and American Landscape Painting c. 1830-1865 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), pp. 1-5.
56. View of New Castle, Delaware [?]. Watercolor, untitled, undated, and unsigned. (Not illustrated.)
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Montgomery Bird.
57. Delaware River scene [?]. Watercolor, untitled, undated, and unsigned. (Not illustrated.)
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Montgomery Bird.
58. ["Delaware Water Gap looking down (from above Water Gap Inn)."] Watercolor, untitled, unsigned, dated August 1853.
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Montgomery Bird.
59. ["Delaware River above the Water Gap (from flank of Sunset Hill)."] Watercolor, untitled, unsigned, dated August 1853.
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Montgomery Bird.
60. "Trenton Bridge--From Above.--July 24th 1826. R.M.B." Watercolor.
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Montgomery Bird.
61. "View Near Philadelphia. Septr. 1833." Watercolor, unsigned.
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Montgomery Bird.
Last update 22 April 1996.