Martin Lewis was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, on June 7th, 1881. He was the second of eight children and had a passion for drawing.
At the age of 15, Lewis left home and traveled in New South Wales, Australia, and in New Zealand, working as a pothole digger and a merchant seaman. He returned to Sydney and settled into a Bohemian community outside Sydney. Two of his drawings were published in the radical Sydney newspaper, The Bulletin. He studied with Julian Ashton at the Art Society's School in Sydney. Ashton was an English-born Australian artist and teacher known for his support of the Heidelberg School and for his influential art school in Sydney.
In 1900, Lewis left Australia for the United States. His first job was in San Francisco, painting stage decorations for William McKinley's presidential campaign of 1900. By 1909, Lewis was living in New York, where he found work in commercial illustration. His earliest known etching is dated 1915. However, the level of skill in this piece suggests he had been working in the medium for some time previously. It was during this period that he helped Edward Hopper learn the basics of etching.
In 1920, after the breakup of a romance, Lewis traveled to Japan, where for two years he drew and painted and studied Japanese art. The influence of Japanese prints is very evident in Lewis's prints after that period. In 1925, he returned to etching and produced most of his well-known works between 1925 and 1935. Lewis's first solo exhibition in 1929 was successful enough for him to give up commercial work and concentrate entirely on printmaking.
Lewis is most famous for his black and white prints, mostly of night scenes of non-tourist, real-life street scenes of New York City. During the Depression, however, he was forced to leave the city for four years between 1932 and 1936 and move to Newtown, Connecticut. His work from this period includes a number of rural, night-time, and winter landscape scenes in this area.
Lewis returned to Manhattan in 1936 and continued to etch and paint. He taught printmaking at the Art Students League of New York from 1944 until his retirement in 1952. Now he is considered one of the most important American printmakers of the twentieth century.
Find original Martin Lewis prints and other art on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Allinson Gallery, Inc.)
Barns in the Helderberg, New York (rural 1930s American scene with vintage car)
By Martin Lewis
Located in New Orleans, LA
"Barns in the Helderberg, New York" by Martin Lewis shows neighbors (one in a Model T car) visiting outside a series of barns with a tree in the background...
Chalk, Charcoal
$5,200Sale Price|20% Off
H 17.75 in W 12.5 in
Villa Giardino, 20th Century Charcoal Italian Landscape Drawing
By Clara Deike
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clara Deike (American, 1881-1964) Villa Giardino Charcoal on paper Signed and titled verso 17.75 x 12.5 inches A graduate of the Cleveland School of Art in 1912, Clara Deike was pa...
Charcoal
$3,900
H 33 in W 27 in
"Times Square" Mid 20th Century 1937 Modernism Broadway Drawing NYC Cityscape
Located in New York, NY
"Times Square" Mid 20th Century 1937 Modernism Broadway Drawing NYC Cityscape Philip Goodwin (20th Century) "Times Square," 23 ½ x 17 ¼ inches. Gouache...
Paper, Gouache
$5,500
H 19 in W 25 in
NYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century
By Max Arthur Cohn
Located in New York, NY
NYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century Max Arthur Cohn (1903-1998) New York City Skyline 14 x 21 1/2 inches Watercolor on paper, c. 1...
Paper, Watercolor
$3,000
H 12 in W 19 in
"Central Park" Leon Dolice, New York Central Park Scene, Mid-Century
By Leon Dolice
Located in New York, NY
Leon Dolice Central Park Signed lower left Watercolor on paper 12 x 19 inches The romantic backdrop of Vienna at the turn of the century had a life-long influence upon the young ma...
Paper, Pastel
$650
H 14 in W 18 in D 0.13 in
1940s Berkeley, California Landscape - Original Charcoal Drawing, Signed
By Omer Ferdi Sahingil
Located in Soquel, CA
1940s Berkley, California Landscape - Original Charcoal Drawing, Signed Plein-air drawing of a street in Berkley by Turkish-American artist Ömer Şahingil (Turkish/American, 1915-197...
Paper, Charcoal
$110,000
H 20 in W 17 in
"Bathers" American Scene Social Realism 20th Century Modernism Ashcan Fauvism
By Charles Demuth
Located in New York, NY
"Bathers" American Scene Social Realism 20th Century Modernism Ashcan Fauvism Charles Demuth (1883-1935) "Bathers" 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches watercolor on paper, c. 1930 Signed lower le...
Paper, Watercolor
$20,000
H 30 in W 40 in
"Queens Lights at Night" Yvonne Jacquette, NYC Urban Cityscape Nocturnal Aerial
By Yvonne Jacquette
Located in New York, NY
Yvonne Jacquette Queens Lights at Night, 1980 Pastel on paper 28 x 17 inches Yvonne Jacquette was born on December 15, 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in Stamford, Con...
Paper, Pastel
$165
H 12 in W 16 in D 0.13 in
Two 1940s Chicago Street Scenes, Studies for Fulton Street Market, Urban Realism
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Unique Offering of Two 1940s Chicago City Street Scenes, "Studies for Fulton Street Market" by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). Two related, boldly ex...
Paper, Charcoal
$28,000
H 24 in W 31 in D 2 in
Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern
By Reginald Marsh
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954) Brooklyn Bridge, 1940, Signed and dated Reginald Marsh May 1940 (lr), Watercolor over traces of pencil on paper , 15 x 22 inches sight. Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France in 1898, the child of artist parents. He was born over a small cafe on Paris' Left Bank. He was brought to the United States in 1900 and was drawing before he was three. He studied art at Yale University and the Art Students League, during which time he worked primarily as an illustrator for New York newspapers and magazines. After studying in Paris in 1925 and 1926, he turned seriously to painting. In 1929 he was introduced to the egg-tempera medium, which he used extensively the rest of his life. Marsh's gusto for painting the bottom crust of society contrasted curiously with his background. His parents, both well-known artists, were steeped in academic traditions. He attended Lawrenceville Academy and Yale; perhaps this elite background made it possible to paint the earthy people he did with a journalist's objectivity. An admirer of Rubens and Delacroix, he disliked modernist art; indeed, his lifelong preoccupation was with people - enjoying themselves at beaches, at amusement parks, or on crowded city streets. Marsh was a second-generation Ash Can School painter and printmaker, best known as an urban regionalist. He spent his days sketching in small notebooks...
Paper, Watercolor
$1,500
H 13 in W 15.5 in
"View At Hunts Point, Long Island Hunt Pt. S25.03" Oscar Bluemner, Modernism
By Oscar Bluemner
Located in New York, NY
Oscar Bluemner View At Hunts Point, Long Island Hunt Pt. S25.03, 1903 Signed, Titled, Dated, and Monogrammed lower left Graphite on Paper 4 3/8 x 7 inches The son and grandson of a...
Paper, Graphite
Alfred Bendiner, Santa Fe Cowhands (New Mexico)
By Alfred Bendiner
Located in New York, NY
Apparently Bendiner never went a day without drawing. He was amazing! In this scene of a young 'cowgirl' is working a lasso while an 'old cowhand' looks on -- clutching a cigaret of...
Watercolor
$3,000
H 19 in W 11 in
"Chrysler Building" Leon Dolice, New York City Street Scene, Mid-Century
By Leon Dolice
Located in New York, NY
Leon Dolice Chrysler Building Signed lower right Watercolor on paper 19 x 12 inches The romantic backdrop of Vienna at the turn of the century had a life-long influence upon the yo...
Paper, Pastel
Shadows -- Garage at Night
By Martin Lewis
Located in Plano, TX
Shadows -- Garage at Night. c. 1928. Conte crayon drawing. Study for the drypoint, McCarron 69. 10 1/8 x 12 3/4 (the drypoint measures 9 7/8 x 11 7/8). The drypoint is illustrated in...
Crayon