Fenn Harry Gallery

The Catskills, Sunrise from South Mountain, 1874. Creator: Samuel Valentine Hunt

The Catskills, Sunrise from South Mountain, 1874. The Catskill Mountains, part of the larger Appalachian Mountain range, in southeastern New York State, USA. Clustering closely together, these isolated mountains, to which the early Dutch settlers gave the name of "Catskills", approach within eight miles of the river, and, like an advanced bastion of the great rocky wall, command the valley for a considerable distance, and one of the most striking features in the landscape. On the western side, they slope gradually toward the central part of the State of New York, running off into spurs and ridges in every direction. On the eastern, however, they rise abruptly from the valley to a height of more than four thousand feet, resembling, when looked at from the river, a gigantic fist with the palm downward, the peaks representing the knuckles, and the glens and cloves the spaces between them'. From "Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In, A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes...with Illustrations on Steel and Wood by Eminent American Artists" Vol. II, edited by William Cullen Bryant. [D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1874]

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Rocks, Rock City, 1872. Creator: Harry Fenn

Rocks, Rock City, 1872. ...'a singular grouping of rocks, known by the name of "Rock City" [near Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA]...This is a very odd phenomenon. Vast rocks of the most varied and fantastic shape are arranged into avenues almost as regular as the streets of a city. Names, indeed, have been given to some of the main thoroughfares, through which one may travel between great masses of the oddest architecture conceivable. Sometimes these structures are nearly square, and front the avenue with all the imposing dignity of a Fifth Avenue mansion. But others exhibit a perfect license in capricious variety of form. Some are scooped out at the lower portion, and overhang their base in ponderous balconies of rock. Others stand balanced on small pivots of rock, and apparently defy the law of gravitation. I know of nothing more quaint and strange than the aspects of this mock city-silent, shadowy, deserted, and suggestive, some way, of a strange life once within its borders. One expects to hear a foot-fall, to see the ponderous rocks open and give forth life, and awaken the sleep that hushes the dumb city in a repose so profound'. From "Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In, A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes...with Illustrations on Steel and Wood by Eminent American Artists" Vol. I, edited by William Cullen Bryant. [D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1872]

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The Cave of the Winds, 1872. Creator: Harry Fenn

The Cave of the Winds, 1872. Tourists at the base of Niagara Falls, USA: ...bridges have been built from rock to rock, under the very cataract itself, and amid all its vapory spray and turmoil and deafening roar. We stagger blindly on, preceded by the guide, and blinded by the torrents of spray that are incessantly dashed in our faces and on our backs. The concussion of the waters produces corresponding currents of air, which beat and buffet and twirl us about...The sun shines down upon the seething waters, and its slanting arrows of light are seized upon by the mist, and broken into myriad scintillations of prismatic hues, into fragmentary rainbows, and globes and bubbles of crimson and green...columns of spray are drifting and sweeping madly in every direction...All this while our ears are stunned by a demoniacal orgy of sounds. The cataract shrieks and groans and howls and bellows in fifty different accents at once, while over all dominates the deep, booming roar of the distant Horseshoe Fall'. From "Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In, A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes...with Illustrations on Steel and Wood by Eminent American Artists" Vol. I, edited by William Cullen Bryant. [D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1872]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images