- Representation de feu terrible a Nouvelle Yorck
- Vue d'Optique of the New York Wall Street Fire
Sheet: 11 7/8 × 16 5/8 in. (30.2 × 42.2 cm)
Explore Further
This print presents a European artist’s imagined view of the New York fire of September 19, 1776. The hand-colored print depicts several buildings (the original New York Stock Exchange, the original Kings College, and Trinity Church, among others) along a street fully engulfed in flames at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street. The print portrays great inferno that destroyed as many as 1,600 homes, churches, and schools in the British-occupied city during the American Revolution. The scene depicts British soldiers, dressed in their signature red coats, beating the city’s panicking inhabitants while others, portrayed as enslaved Africans, loot the blazing buildings.
Perspective views (or vues d’optique), like this one, were a type of print published in Europe during the 18th century and a form of entertainment meant to be seen through devices called optical machines, optiques, zograscopes, or peepshows. Their use of perspective lines make them visually playful and historically fascinating. The prints were exhibited by traveling showmen in the streets throughout Europe and were collected by those in the professional and upper classes who had the viewing devices at home.
ProvenancePrivate collection; [Early American History Auctions, Rancho Santa Fe, California, August 29, 2015, lot 1244]; purchased by MFAH, 2015.
Exhibition History"Radicals and Revolutionaries: America's Founding Fathers," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 10–May 28, 2018.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Inscribed in printed ink, below plate, center: Représentation du feu terrible à nouvelle Yorck, que les Américans ont allumé pendant la nuit du 19. septembre 1776. par lequel ont été brulés tous les Bâtimens du coté de Vest. / a droit de Borse, dans la rue de Broock jusqu’au college du Roi, et plus de 1600. maisons avec l’Eglise de la Se. Trinité la Chapelle Luthèrienne, et l’école des pauvres. [cursive]
Recto: Inscribed in printed ink, below plate, center bottom edge: Paris chez Basset Rue S. Jacques au coin de la rue des Mathurins. [cursive]
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, top left corner: 5000 / £150’,-
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, bottom right corner: 42x30 / 38.5_x23 / D Pm 893
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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