Ruins of a Tavern, Petersburg, Virginia, c. 1845

Not on View

Medium

watercolor over graphite on wove paper

Dimensions

sheet: 15.72 × 27.31 cm (6 3/16 × 10 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Membership Association Fund)

Accession Number

2015.19.612

Artists / Makers

William Skinner Simpson, Jr. (artist) American, 1823 - 1895

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

verso in graphite: The ruins of a tavern which [crossed out] which / once stood at the corner of Bollingbrook + 3rd streets / the site now + for many years past occupied / by a block of 3 story private [crossed out] brick residences. / The building was destroyed by fire in the year / --- On the right is seen this [crossed out] a portion of / the framed Carpenter Shop of Drinkard / + Mc Car[?] - and above + beyond that can / be seen a small bit of the Old / Petersburg Theatre, the interior of / which was considered in its day a model / to be one of, if not the best arranged as its [crossed out] its / stage + auditorium appearance of any / other in the Country. The elder Booth, if he did / not make his debut here played one of his / first engagements in this house [crossed out], if not as / elaborate in ornamental architecture, of any / similar building in the Country. This was also / burnt early in the first half [crossed out] present Century.

Provenance

(Young's Art Shop, Richmond, VA); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1949; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Young's Art Shop

Bibliography

1983: Simmons, Linda Crocker and with the assistance of Adrianne J. Humphrey, et al. American Drawings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Collages in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1983: p. 74, no. 465.