Reginald Marsh

'Locomotives Watering' — 1930s Social Realism

1934

John Sloan, 'New Year's Eve and Adam', etching, 1918, edition 100, (only 85 printed), Morse 190. Signed, titled and annotated '100 proofs' in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, l...

Reginald Marsh, 'A Morning in May', etching, 1936, edition 100 (Whitney, 1969), Sasowsky 169. Unsigned as published; numbered '89/100' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, ...

Glenn O. Coleman, 'Hurdy Gurdy Ballet', lithograph 1928, edition 50. Signed, dated, and numbered '14/50' in pencil. Titled in the bottom left margin, in a...

Frederick K. Detwiller, 'The Sixth Avenue Spur, New York City', lithograph, 1924, edition 20. Signed, dated, titled, and annotated 'Lith 20' in pencil. Inscribed 'To my Friend Herbert L. Jones' in pencil. Signed and dated, in the stone, lower right; initialed and dated '1927' in the stone, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, with margins (7/8 to 1 1/4 inches); slight toning in the top left sheet edge, otherwise in good condition. Scarce. Image size 20 1/2 x 14 inches (521 x 356 mm); sheet size 22 1/2 x 16 inches (572 x 406 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE IMAGE The Sixth Avenue El was constructed in the late 1870s by the Gilbert Elevated Railway and reorganized as the Metropolitan Elevated Railway. By 1878, it was running from Rector Street to 58th Street. Soon after that, it was taken over by the Manhattan Railway Company, with three other Manhattan elevated train lines. The company built a connection, the ‘spur’ by which it turned west on 53rd Street to merge with the 9th Avenue El—paralleling the present-day route of the 6th Avenue subway. The Sixth Avenue El served the “Ladies Mile” shops (including the Siegel-Cooper emporium, whose building now houses Bed...

Lawrence Kupferman, 'Fantasia Americana – 1880', drypoint etching with sandground, 1943. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Series A, 1971 2/6' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches); the paper slightly lightened within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition. One of only 6 impressions printed in 1971, with the added sandground grey background tint. Image size 11 13/16 x 14 3/4 inches; sheet size 18 x 20 1/4 inches. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Collections: National Gallery of Art, Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University). ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and participated in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths...

William Robinson Leigh, 'Foul Rope (Left)', etching, c. 1920, edition unknown but small. Signed in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower left. A superb, richly-inked impression, in dark brown ink, on buff wove Umbria paper, the full sheet with margins (1 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches); slight toning at the sheet edges, otherwise in excellent condition. Very scarce. Image size 14 7/8 x 11 15/16 inches (378 x 303 mm); sheet size 20 3/8 x 15 3/8 inches (518 x 391 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born near Falling Waters, West Virginia on a plantation a year after the Civil War, and raised in Baltimore, William Robinson Leigh (1866 - 1955) became one of the foremost painters of the American West. His career spanning some seventy-five years, Leigh created some of the most iconic depictions of the western landscape, admirers referring to him as ‘The Sagebrush Rembrandt’. The son of impoverished Southern aristocrats, Leigh took his first art training at age 14 from Hugh Newell at the Maryland Institute where he was regarded as the best student in his class. From 1883 to 1895, he studied in Europe, mainly at the Royal Academy in Munich with Ludwig Loefftz. From 1891 to 1896, he painted six cycloramas or murals in the round, a giant German panorama. In 1896, Leigh began working as a magazine illustrator in New York City for Scribner's and Collier's Weekly Magazine, and he also painted portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes. Leigh's trips to the Southwest began in 1906 when he made an agreement with William Simpson, Santa Fe Railway advertising manager, to paint the Grand Canyon in exchange for free transportation West. In 1907, he completed his Grand Canyon painting, which led to more commissions and an extensive painting trip through Arizona and New Mexico. These travels inspired him to paint western subjects for the next 50 years, his primary interest being the Hopi and Navajo Indians. In 1910, he traveled to Wyoming, where he painted in Yellowstone Park and created sketches, many of which he later converted into large canvases such as ‘Lower Falls of the Yellowstone’ (1915) and ‘Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone’ (1911). In 1926 he traveled to Africa at the invitation of Carl Akeley for the American Museum of Natural History, and from this experience wrote and illustrated 'Frontiers of Enchantment: An Artist's Adventures in Africa'. In 1933, he wrote and illustrated 'The Western Pony'. His adventures were chronicled in a number of popular magazines including Life, the Saturday Evening Post, and Colliers. For many years, his work was handled exclusively in New York by Grand Central Art Galleries at the Biltmore Hotel. In 1953 Leigh was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, becoming a full Academician in 1955. In March 1999, the Historical Center of Cody, Wyoming, held an exhibition of his field sketches and finished works depicting his experiences near Cody in the early part of the century. These years, between 1910 and 1921, when he often painted in the Carter Mountain vicinity, were considered pivotal to his artistic development and his devotion to the western landscape. Leigh's work is held in many museum collections of American western art...

Russian-born and European-educated Alexander Kachinsky was a designer of stage sets (for the Ballet Russe), furniture, and commercial interiors. His prints are in the collection of t...

This Depression-era New York City subway scene says it all. The body language of all five passengers tells us where each of them is in his or her ...

The etching (Road to Calvary) is signed in pencil. It's in an usually spare drawing style but one that Nagler did use occasionally. Here it emphasizes the meagerness of the scene. T...

Russian-born and European-educated Alexander Kachinsky was a designer of stage sets (for the Ballet Russe), furniture, and commercial interiors. His prints are in the collection of t...

Ukrainian-born, lower East Side based, Sarah Berman was active on the NYC-WPA and in artists' circles. Daniel in the Lions' Den is an etching, signed and ...

The etching (Crucifixion) is signed and titled in pencil. Signed 'Fred' and possibly dated '27' in the image at lower left. It's in an usually spare drawing style but one that Nagl...