Landscape (possibly of Staten Island, New York)

Unidentified · ca. 1850

This painting appears to show a mining site on Todt Hill, Staten Island. The unknown artist chose to paint a busy crossroads, with wagons carrying ore back and forth and a stagecoach full of passengers. The Chinese laborers in the image suggest that the artist added details from his imagination, however, because there are no records of Asian residents or workers on the island in the mid-nineteenth century. (Lynda Hartigan, Made with Passion, 1990)