Charles-Balthazar-Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (French, 1770–1852)
View of the City and Harbour of New York, 1796
New York, New York
Etching with hand coloring
Lent by the Chipstone Foundation, 1973.6

Saint-Mémin sketched New York City from the porch of his friend John R. Livingston’s house. Livingston convinced Saint-Mémin not to send the drawing back to London but rather to have it engraved in New York where the publishing industry was growing dramatically. This particular print shows the image still in a preliminary state. Notice the blank box below the picture, where later versions include the title “View of the City and Harbour of New York, taken from Mount Pitt, the Seat of John R. Livingston, Esq.”