American Art

Cape Henlopen

After a painting by Thomas Birch (American, 1779-1851) in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (62.261).

After 1832

Jacob Eichholtz, American, 1776 - 1842. Copy after a painting by Thomas Birch, American (born England), 1779 - 1851.

Oil on canvas
20 1/8 x 29 7/8 inches (51.1 x 75.9 cm)

* Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Fernberger Family Gallery)

1930-50-2

Label

Jacob Eichholtz, a Pennsylvania portrait painter, made few landscape or marine paintings. This scene, a copy of the work of the Philadelphia marine painter Thomas Birch, made when both artists were over fifty, seems to have been undertaken as a learning experience, or for the pleasure of owning an admired work.

Copies were common in American art before the mid-nineteenth century. Artists learned from copying prints or other paintings, and often earned money making replicas of old master paintings for collectors.