Little Falls at Luzerne (No. 1 of The Hudson River Portfolio)

Art Historical Context

This striking aquatint captures the dramatic cascade of Little Falls at Luzerne, a picturesque site along New York’s upper Hudson River. Created between 1822 and 1823 as the first plate in *The Hudson River Portfolio*, it reproduces an original watercolor by Irish-born artist William Guy Wall. Engraver John Hill translated the scene into print using the aquatint process, which produces soft, watercolor-like tones through etched resin grounds. The resulting image was then delicately hand-colored, giving each impression a luminous, individualized quality characteristic of early nineteenth-century color printing. Published by Henry J. Megarey, the portfolio was among the most ambitious American landscape projects of its era. At a time when the young nation was defining its cultural identity, these views celebrated the Hudson’s natural beauty and encouraged tourism and settlement. The first state of this print preserves Hill’s initial, richly inked rendering before later revisions, offering viewers a rare glimpse of the collaborative artistry—painter, engraver, and colorist—behind early American printmaking. Today in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, the work continues to evoke the Romantic era’s fascination with untamed American scenery and the technical ingenuity that brought it into homes across the country.