BROADWAY SOUTH FROM THE ASTOR HOTEL WITH P.T. BARNUM’S AMERICAN MUSEUM

Depicting a popular view of New York City during the nineteenth century, this painting includes a number of recognizable buildings looking south just above the intersection of Broadway, Park Row (known as Chatham Street prior to 1886) and Ann Street. Along the right, the west side of Broadway, is Trinity Church in the distance, St. Paul’s Church with the Corinthian columns and, near right, Astor House. The main focus in Barnum’s American Museum at center left with billowing American flags and posters with Japanese figures. Near left on Park Row are several businesses including publishers G. [George] Routledge & Sons and Thomas Y. Crowell & Sons. As the image includes buildings and businesses that existed at different times, it appears that the artist drew upon earlier prints and incorporated them into a contemporary scene. Barnum’s Museum burned to the ground in 1865 and the New York Herald building, a marble structure with a mansard roof, was built on the site in 1867. Business directories indicate that Routledge and Crowell were in business in this vicinity during the later nineteenth century (Routledge on Beekman Street from 1857 and Crowell from further north on Broadway from 1876), but not at the address shown in the painting. Perhaps most indicative of a possible date of this work is the presence of the striped awnings on the windows of Astor House. Among the numerous old images of the building, the only examples that feature these awnings are dated to 1908 or circa 1908 (see, for example, a 1908 postcard, https://www.geographicguide.com/united-states/nyc/antique/hotels/astor/astor-house.htm).

Christie’s would like to thank Geoffrey K. Fleming, Executive Director, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia, for his insights into imagery of this painting.