Artwork
Union Park, New York
Union Park, New York is a gouache work on paper by the American Folk Art artist Sarah Fairchild. It dates from 1845 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
You see a small park framed by tall brick buildings, a fountain spraying water in the center, and a few people strolling under trees.
You see a small park framed by tall brick buildings, a fountain spraying water in the center, and a few people strolling under trees.
This watercolor feels like a quiet Sunday morning in 1845 New York. The artist used thin, overlapping layers, called glazing, to make the light look soft and real. It’s not a grand scene, just a regular city corner, but the details make it feel alive.
If you like this, look up more works about new york city.
Subject & Meaning
Union Park, New York depicts a mid-nineteenth-century urban park scene in New York City, centered on a fountain surrounded by mature trees and framed by park architecture. The watercolor and gouache rendering emphasizes the interplay of natural greenery with structured civic space, capturing the ordered yet verdant character of an early public park. The inclusion of the fountain, a recurring motif in contemporaneous landscape imagery, suggests themes of civic improvement and communal leisure during the period.
The work’s focus on an organized green space within an urban setting aligns with the era’s burgeoning appreciation for public parks as symbols of civic pride and social order.
Technique & Style
Union Park, New York is executed in watercolor and gouache with pen and ink over graphite on an off-white wove paper support. The sheet measures 35.2 cm in height by 45.2 cm in width.
Handling emphasizes fluid washes for skies and foliage, while sharply delineated ink lines define architectural and fountain details. Gouache provides opaque highlights in the water and architectural accents, contrasting with the translucent passages of the watercolor ground. The composition combines topographic clarity with a picturesque treatment of trees and urban structures, typical of mid-nineteenth-century American landscape practice.
History & Provenance
The work titled Union Park, New York was produced by Sarah Fairchild in 1845.
It is executed in watercolor, gouache, pen, ink and graphite on off‑white wove paper and measures 35.2 cm by 45.2 cm.
The subject portrays a fountain, park and tree within an urban landscape of New York City.
Its creation history is documented through contemporary records of the artist’s activity in the mid‑nineteenth century.
The piece was classified as a landscape and placed within The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains in the museum’s collection.
Union Park, New York is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is accessioned as 65.60.1. The work was painted in 1845 and measures 35.2 cm in height by 45.2 cm in width.
It has not been recorded in any exhibition history associated with this entry.
Overview
Sarah Fairchild created Union Park, New York around 1845, employing a combination of watercolor, gouache, pen and ink, and graphite on off-white wove paper. This landscape captures a specific urban scene, offering a glimpse into a public space within New York City during the mid-19th century. The work presents a tranquil view of a city park, characteristic of the period's urban development.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sarah Fairchild was an American amateur artist working in the mid-nineteenth century, known chiefly for her view Union Park, New York, made around 1845 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
