Winter Scene in Brooklyn (Francis Guy, ca. 1819-1820)
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During the Macaulay Night at the Museum event at the Brooklyn Museum on September 12, 2018, all of the Macaulay students were given the opportunity to explore select areas and exhibits on display at the museum for three hours from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Although I arrived at the Brooklyn Museum an hour late due to an accounting information workshop at Baruch College that didn’t end until 6:30 PM, I was still able to take a quick walk and glimpse at all the on-display artwork on the first, third, and fifth floor. The most intriguing collection I saw on display was the American Art Galleries on the fifth floor. Amongst the artwork in these galleries, this painting by Francis Guy titled Winter Scene in Brooklyn interested me the most with its eloquent colors and peacefully exuberant setting. I love the winter season because the colder temperatures mixed with the presence of snow induce a sense of serenity as the intensity and occurrence of noises and sound are reduced due to both people choosing to stay indoors and scientific principles of sound waves. When viewing Guy’s oil on paint canvas, I feel the same sense of serenity I feel during a snowy day because of the painting’s inclusion of bright white snow, gray clouds signifying an approaching cold front, icicles hanging from houses and objects, and the presence of steam rising from chimneys suggesting active fireplaces within these houses.
The houses themselves remind me of an Old Dutch or Old English housing style due to the refined wooden structures with smooth, original colors of shades of white and brown. The coloring and structure of the buildings also suggest a highly-detailed level of sophisticated design and wealth. Non-affluent individuals wouldn’t likely have buildings with more than one story of floors with multiple rooms, windows, a balcony, and supplemental sheds like the white building on the right and the buildings in the middle distance of the painting indicate. As the title and accompanying exhibit label of the composition suggests, this painting captures the essence of downtown Brooklyn around 1819 or 1820. The viewer witnesses numerous individuals performing various tasks including feeding chickens, gathering lumber, shoveling coal, retrieving water from a fountain, people engaging in conversation with others, and even one man appearing to slip on ice and fall on his back as someone else reaches down to assist him. All of these elements capture the similar robust environment of downtown Brooklyn, and the greater New York City area has today in the 21st century with waves of people engaging in countless tasks. Additionally, the clothing style of the individuals varies from full suits and top hats, to pleasant jackets and warm clothing, to loose fitting rags. The vast array of attire also highlights the difference in wealth and social class amongst the figures in the painting.
Interestingly, according to the exhibit label, Guy produced this piece by painting from the vantage point of his second-story window, giving the scene a more realistic theme and aspects to it. Many of the figures in the composition have distinguishable features from the different colors and materials of people’s clothing and buildings. Approximately half of the painting is full of clouds in the sky, capturing the picturesque view of downtown Brooklyn from his window, a view that is today obstructed by urbanization and tall buildings. Additionally, the lifelike details seem identical to that of a modern photograph, freezing time to capture the numerous components of the landscape into this one image to keep the scenery forever alive and remembered in this moment of time and history. Overall, the setting and precise attention to detail of Guy’s painting does a fantastic job at encapsulating the lifestyles and active environment of downtown Brooklyn in 1820, while also instilling the tranquility of the winter season.
—Patrick Perrigo
