NGA: Themes in American Art: Topographical Views

Topographical Views

Any depiction of an actual, specific site--from a panoramic view of a city to a street scene or a neighbor's farm--qualifies as a topographical image. The primary purpose is the documentation of the basic visual information that identifies a place. Landscapes, while they have the same subject, convey the artist's subjective interpretation of nature's moods and mysteries. Like surveyors, topographic artists are concerned with the lay of the land--the hills, rivers, streets, and buildings that characterize a geographical site. Typically, topographical scenes are panoramas viewed from a slightly elevated position, looking down on the land. The site is presented in a direct manner and bathed in an even light, making distant details clearly visible. While human figures are often present in these scenes, they are incidental to the view and primarily used to establish scale.

Before the widespread use of photography, topographical painting was used to show the appearance of foreign lands and exotic locations. In the late eighteenth century, artists in the colonies and Federal America portrayed the unique features of the New World. Not surprisingly, residents were interested not only in recording their surroundings, but also documenting the nation's emerging prosperity. Ralph Earl included topographical views in his portrait of Daniel Boardman, a merchant in New Milford, Connecticut, in order to relay information about his sitter's identity, status, and land holdings.

It was not uncommon for landowners to commission portraits of their property, as in Charles Hofmann's Benjamin Reber's Farm and Francis Alexander's Ralph Wheelock's Farm. Both these works have been documented as representing views that exist, fundamentally unchanged, to this day. Hofmann's Berks County Almshouse, probably commissioned by an administrator or staff member, was painted while the artist was a resident of the facility.

With technical advances in the reproduction of prints, engravings became the medium of choice for topographical work. By the early nineteenth century, engravings were available of many American cities and ports, including Boston, New York, Washington, Charleston, and Savannah. William James Bennett produced books of engravings featuring scenes of popular American sites and natural landmarks, which sold in both the United States and Europe.

Topographical views have also played a journalistic role, commemorating events such as the erection of a building, the opening of a railroad, and other newsworthy incidents. Images like John Hilling's Burning of Old South Church and L. M. Cooke's Salute to George Washington served the same purpose as modern documentary photography. The View of Concord gives us both a record of the appearance of this Massachusetts town in 1775 and an illustration of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. In 1856 George Inness recorded the industrialization of the area around Scranton, Pennsylvania. George Bellows' Blue Morning, painted in 1909, records the construction of the Ninth Avenue train tracks and the original Penn Station in New York City.

By the late nineteenth century, topographical illustration had been largely supplanted by photography and film. In the twentieth century, work by regional painters displayed topographical aspects, but in general, topography now remains largely the province of the camera.

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