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Winter Scene in Brooklyn

Francis Guy

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, The Americas’ First Peoples, 4000 B.C.E.–1521 C.E.
From his studio on Front Street, now the Brooklyn neighborhood known as Dumbo, the painter Francis Guy observed his neighbors on a snowy day two centuries ago. They can be seen here engaged in such activities as getting a drink from a hand pump well, feeding chickens, and socializing. Guy represented the diversity of his Brooklyn neighborhood, portraying a range of classes (from manual laborers to merchants) and including a large concentration of Brooklyn’s free African American population.
MEDIUM Oil on canvas
DATES ca. 1819-1820
DIMENSIONS 58 3/8 x 74 9/16 in. (148.2 x 189.4 cm) frame: 69 3/4 x 85 x 5 in. (177.2 x 215.9 x 12.7 cm)  (show scale)
INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed on sign on fence: "To be Seen / A View / [illegible] / Brookyn / By / Guy / [illegible]"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 97.13
CREDIT LINE Transferred from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to the Brooklyn Museum
CAPTION Francis Guy (American, 1760-1820). Winter Scene in Brooklyn, ca. 1819-1820. Oil on canvas, 58 3/8 x 74 9/16 in. (148.2 x 189.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Transferred from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to the Brooklyn Museum, 97.13 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 97.13_PS20.jpg)
IMAGE overall, Paula Abreu Pita, 97.13_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024
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