Reynolds Beal (American, 1867-1951), "The Hudson, South from Newburgh NY", c. 1905, oil on artist's board, signed indistinctly lower left, titled "Newburgh" in pencil en verso, flanked by two estate stamps, the longer reading "No. 1369 from the estate of Reynolds Beal--1968/ Purchased by Royal Galleries [signed Sidney Bressler, Dir.", 6 1/4 in. x 9 1/4 in., framed. E1500-2500 Provenance: Beacon Hill Fine Art, New York, label en verso, suggesting a probable date of c. 1905. Note: This unusual perspective from river level (which Beal, an accomplished yachtsman, doubtless painted from on the water itself) shows a lower variant of the well-known view downriver from the west bank of the Hudson, just north of Newburgh: Breakneck Ridge and Bull Hill frame the channel to the left, with Crow's Nest and Storm King to the right; on the axis between those highlands, small boats or barges obscure Pollepel Island, while a sailboat tacks past the town of Newburgh on the right. The prospect from a virtually identical (but much higher) vantage point was published as the "View from Ruggle's House, Newburgh" by Nathaniel Parker Willis, in American Scenery (New York, 1840), as an engraving by G. K. Richardson after a drawing of c. 1836 by William Henry Bartlett; a closer prototype for the water-level vantage of this view was published as a dockside engraving of "The Hudson, South from Newburgh" in William Cullen Bryant's Picturesque America (New York, 1874). Reynolds Beal had attended Cornell (1885- 1889), and his consequent attraction to New York State frequently brought him back there, from his home in Rockport, MA.