THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK (DECEMBER 16TH AND 17TH, 1835)

One of at least 22 depictions of the Great Fire of New York (16 December 1835) by Italian artist Niccolino Calyo, the present work depicts the view of the fire from Brooklyn at night. Calyo’s Italian training “dominates his method...conditioning his liberal use of gouache, which imparts an opaque, slightly chalky surface to his work, setting it apart from the ‘English’ style of transparent watercolor more familiar to American artists of that period” (Kathleen Foster, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia, 1976), p. 300). For a related example with a view of the fire at night see Christie's, New York, 21 September 2014, lot 50.