Lot 513: James Eights (American, 1798-1882) Market Street, State Street to Maiden Lane, Albany, New York. Unsigned. Watercolor on paper, the str

James Eights (American, 1798-1882)

Market Street, State Street to Maiden Lane, Albany, New York. Unsigned. Watercolor on paper, the structures heightened with gum arabic, 9 1/4 x 16 in., in a later mitered mahogany frame, and including a previous backing in which the scene and artist are identified in inscriptions, and with an old Skinner auction label from when this work was previously sold, March 25, 1989. Condition: Good, laid down, craquelure to varnish, scattered loss l.l., minor toning.

Literature: See "James Eights and His Albany Views," William L. Lassiter, The Magazine Antiques, May 1948, pp. 360-61. Lassiter was curator of history at the New York State Museum. The article relates that Eights was born in an aristocratic neighborhood of Dutch homes in Albany, New York, in 1798. Progress brought industry and prosperity to Albany and in the first and second quarter of the 19th century, the old Dutch housing was torn down and replaced with modern housing. Eights observed these changes as a boy and "fifteen or twenty years later he painted from memory the old streets as he remembered them...compris[ing] fourteen different views as it appeared in 1805... most if not all, Eights made replicas so that there is in existence an unestimated number of original Eights drawings. Many of them are to be found among collections of individuals, museums, and libraries in Albany." Lithographs of these scenes were made between 1847-1854 and later 1857-1858, and reproduced in an article in Harpers Magazine in 1856. The May 1948 issue of The Magazine Antiques is included with the painting.