A Town on the Mohawk River in Central New York State (?) 1811 - 1816

This watercolor and graphite drawing shows a town on the Mohawk River in central New York State and was made by Pavel Petrovich Svinin in the early 19th century. Svinin was a Russian artist who traveled to the United States as part of the Russian delegation. This image offers a glimpse into the landscape and developing settlements of early America through the eyes of a foreigner. We can see the layout of the town with its buildings, roads, and the river that snakes through the scene. Svinin’s perspective is not just a geographical record. As an outsider, his view likely captured details and nuances of the burgeoning nation that might have been overlooked by local artists. While it is a seemingly objective rendering, consider what it meant to depict this "new" land, which was of course, not new at all. This was land inhabited and stewarded by indigenous populations for millennia before settlers arrived. The drawing, therefore, exists within a complex history of colonization and cultural exchange. It invites us to reflect on whose perspectives are historically privileged and whose are marginalized.