City of Washington from beyond the Navy Yard, William James Bennett; 1834

— Comments —

A Grateful Reader writes:

Thank you for posting the lovely painting of the view of Washington by William James Bennett. Your poetry and painting selections always return our eyes to beauty after we bear the burden (in other selections) of confronting the lack of reality in the modern world. The view from beyond the Navy Yard appears to be from accross the Anacostia river looking into South-East DC. The rolling hills are among the loveliest in the area. I cannot tell whether the lone building on the high ground is a church or a courthouse; I assume it is one or the other; but perhaps it is an amalgam of buildings indistinct in themselves.

Alas, the National Cathedral that currently occupies the highest ground in Washington, probably the large empty hill in the background, is now used in unwholesome ways. And the oxen in the foreground plow over an area where now runs a road called Malcolm X Boulevard. Thus, I prefer to look through the eyes of Mr. Bennett.

 Laura writes:

You’re welcome.

Here is a brief biographical sketch of the British-born Bennett. And here is an aquatint of his one of his four paintings of Niagara Falls:

 Buck writes:

Here is a higher resolution version (with drab coloring) that better depicts the details in Mr. Bennett’s painting. Here is a 1985 Navy Yard photo that does not take the artist wide angle view. The bridge on the left in the painting, would be the rail line bridge into Virginia, right where I grew up. It’s now paralleled by the 14th Street bridge.

The domed structure is likely the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the “largest Catholic church in all of the Americas.” The National Cathedral, if it had been built by then, would be well out of sight in northwest Washington.

Also, I believe, the future Malcolm X Boulevard would be a good ways south-west of the vantage point assumed by Mr. Bennett, placing it nowhere near either structure.

Laura writes:

Construction of the National Shrine did not begin until 1929. The rendition you linked to is much clearer. It is probable the heavy yellowing of the copy I posted is due to aging.

Henry McCulloch writes:

Thank you for sharing William James Bennett’s landscape of 1830s Washington.  The federal city looks positively pleasant in Mr. Bennett’s portrayal, and it may have been in his day.  Quite a contrast with what the view would be from the same spot today – that is, if one could go there for the panorama other than at the risk of one’s life.

Grateful Reader writes “I cannot tell whether the lone building on the high ground is a church or a courthouse; I assume it is one or the other; but perhaps it is an amalgam of buildings indistinct in themselves.”

Mr. Bennett exaggerated the elevation and steepness of Washington’s hills.  I believe the high ground is Capitol Hill, as it is where Capitol Hill should be, and the lone building is the U.S. Capitol as it then was.  It was a less grandiose structure than the one completed during Mr. Lincoln’s tenure.  Here is a daguerreotype of the Capitol in 1846, when the building would not have been much changed, if at all, from its state in 1834:

Doesn’t that structure look a bit like Bennett’s lone building on the high ground, with the high ground vertically exaggerated in his rendering, as was typical of the time?  One sees that frequently in Hudson River School paintings, with the not very elevated Catskills painted as peaks more resembling the Alps.

Please follow and like us: