From the Mill

In this drawing Alexander Robertson used a stylized graphic shorthand developed by his brother Archibald, who authored the first drawing manual published in the United States, Elements of the Graphic Arts (1802). The artist rendered leaves with looping strokes of his pen, created shading with parallel diagonal lines, and used lighter outlines for background motifs to indicate spatial distance. While the presence of a mill on the Hudson River suggests the beginning of industrial development, the drawing presents a harmonious vision of man in nature, with its tiny figure of a fisherman tucked among the rocks at the left.