"Old Morrisania"

Original pen and ink on archival drawing of the Gouverneur Morris mansion that was located in what is now the South Bronx in New York by the well known American artist Eliza Pratt Greatonex. Signed lower right by the artist and titled lower left. Circa 1865. Gouverneur Morris built the house circa 1809 and it was demolished in 1906. Condition is excellent. Professionally double matted with a one inch wide matte black gallery frame. Overall measurements are 14 by 21.5 inches. Provenance: Sarasota, Florida estate.

Gouverneur Morris was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and has been called the "Penman of the Constitution." Wikipedia

Morrisania was originally a village in Westchester County, then in 1874 was annexed to New York, and subsequently became a part of the south Bronx. From 1644 on, it had been part of the vast the estate of the Morris family. In 1848, Gouverneur Morris sold the land next to railroad line had permitted on his property. In 1855, the deaccessioned land became the village of Morrisania.

ELIZA PRATT GREATOREX (1819 - 1897)
Daughter of a Methodist minister, Eliza Pratt was born in Manorhamilton, Ireland. She moved with her family to New York in 1840 and in 1849 married Henry Wellington Greatorex, a musician. Between 1854 and 1856, Greatorex studied with William Wotherspoon and the Hart brothers in New York; at that time, she exhibited some preliminary drawings, but it was not until she was widowed in 1858 that she began the full-time pursuit of art, supporting herself and her children with her work and by teaching at a girls’ school for fifteen years.

She studied painting with Emile Lambinet in Paris in 1861/62, and in 1870, mother and daughters studied at the Pinakothek in Munich. In 1879, Greatorex went to Paris, where she trained in engraving with Charles Henri Toussaint in order to maintain greater control over the quality of reproductions of her work. There she and her daughters remained. Greatorex is most strongly identified with the Hudson River School, and her work is broadly held by institutions in both the United States and Europe. Her artwork is the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. She died in 1897 and is buried in Paris.

Eliza Pratt Greatorex was a pupil of James and William Hart in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1869, she was the first female to be made an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design. She also exhibited frequently at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Boston Athenaeum. She is best know for her views of New York City and its environs.