View of the Monmouth Battle-Ground, New Jersey

Engraver John H. Schenck

Period1854

MediumWoodblock engraving on newsprint with handpainted watercolor

Dimensions7 × 10.5 in. (17.8 × 26.7 cm)

InscribedInscribed bottom center, "View of the Monmouth Battle-Ground, New Jersey."

SignedSigned lower left, "SCHENCK. SC."

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineMarshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1988

Object number1988.4.1

DescriptionA landscape view showing a farmstead right of center in the middle distance. It consists of a story and a half house, a one story wing attached to it on the left, a barn beyond it, and a small outbuilding to the right of the barn. Two trees in the foreground frame the farmstead, one on its left, and another on its right forming the edge of the print. The vista shows scattered trees on the farmland. A cluster of rocks appear in the lower right, mixed with scrub growth. Two males wearing hats are shown to the left of center in the foreground, one seated on the ground. Both carry long barrel guns. Three cows are grazing in the lower left middle distance. The woodcut has been enhanced with watercolors.
Curatorial RemarksJohn H. Schenck, a wood-engraver who lived and worked in Boston between 1852 and 1856, engraved this bucolic scene, which was inspired by an engraving by James Smillie and Robert Hinshelwood (accession number 2015.5.1).NotesThe Battle of Monmouth was fought on a wide, undulating plain (now Monmouth Battlefield State Park) populated by seven farmhouses surrounded by fields and orchards. The site eventually became hallowed ground. Reproduced in an article on the Monmouth battleground published in the 1 July 1854 issue of Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, this engraving shows “that portion of the battle-field where the crisis of the flight occurred––and what was a disgraceful flight became a victory. The view looks north . . . in the distance, between two trees, stretching along to the left of the picture is the ground occupied by Washington; to the right, from the house to the end of the view is the elevated ground where the British were stationed.” The Old Tennent Parsonage can be seen on the distant horizon.

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