Washington Square Park, New York City

Washington Square is one of those parks we come back to every time we're in the neighborhood — good fountain, good people-watching, good arch. When it came time to draw it, the purple sky wasn't the plan. It just emerged as we worked through different color combinations. We liked how the arch looked against it, so we kept it.

This illustration starts from a photo taken on that visit. The deep purple sky, the green of the trees fighting the dark, the arch filling the frame — all drawn by hand in our Fort Worth studio.

The Washington Square Arch was built in 1892 to commemorate the centennial of George Washington's presidential inauguration. It stands at the northern entrance to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, one of the most storied neighborhoods in New York City.

The illustration is drawn from straight on, the arch filling the vertical frame with the city rising behind it and the park stretching to the foreground. The inscription carved across the top — Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair... — is legible in the drawing.

This print works in a home office, a living room, or as part of a travel gallery wall. It pairs naturally with other city prints in the Hand-Illustrated Stopovers series — Chicago, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Seattle are all available separately.

The deep purple and violet palette is distinctive on a wall. A simple white or natural wood frame lets the color read clearly.

This NYC art print makes a meaningful gift for anyone with a connection to the city — a New Yorker who moved away, someone who visited and fell for Greenwich Village, or a friend who has always wanted to go. It is a popular choice as a New York City housewarming gift or a birthday present for the New York lover in your life.

Ships same day in protective packaging. Free shipping on all orders.

Crane has been making paper in America for more than two hundred years, and Lettra is the sheet their reputation rests on. It is 100% cotton, with no wood pulp at all, and it has a soft, slightly toothy surface that most printing papers simply do not have. Pigment ink settles into the fibers rather than sitting on top, which is why the color reads with depth from across the room.

Printers reach for Lettra when a piece has to feel like something: letterpress invitations, engraved announcements, foil and embossing work. We use it because a hand-drawn illustration deserves a surface that feels handmade too.

Ours is 110 lb Cover in Fluorescent White, 297 GSM. Substantial enough to hold its own in a frame, and bright enough to let the color do its job.