Horizontorium
William G. Mason
(American, active 1822–1860)
John Jesse Barker
(American, born about 1785, active about 1815–1860)
1832
Medium/TechniqueLithograph
DimensionsSheet: 57 × 44.5 cm (22 7/16 × 17 1/2 in.)
Credit LineThe Richard Balzer Collection—Gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer
Accession number2019.814
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPrints
Collections
It looks like an Escher, but there’s a difference. Unlike Escher’s impossible structures, which cannot be built, this one actually existed. It was a bank in Philadelphia, and the distortion in this print is just a trick of perspective. If viewers place their eyes close to the little half-circle at the bottom and look across the print; the structure appears close to normal.
ProvenanceBetween about 1970 and 2017, acquired by Richard Balzer (b. 1944 - d. 2017), Brookline, MA; by inheritance to Patricia Bellinger; 2019, gift of Patricia Bellinger to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 24, 2019)
