By William Sharp
Located in New York, NY
William Sharp (1900 - 1961)
Factory on the River
Oil on canvas
20 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches
Initialed lower left: WS
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Private Collection, New York
Swann Auction Galleries, American Art, June 13, 2019, Lot 178
Private Collection, New York
Colonial Sand and Stone Co., founded by Generoso Pope, was once the country’s largest sand and gravel business, providing the concrete for much of New York City’s skyline, including the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, airports and subways.
William Sharp was born on June 13, 1900, in Lemberg, Austria, where he attended college and the Academy for Arts and Industry. He later studied in Kraków, Poland, and in Berlin and Munich, Germany. Sharp began his career as a designer of stained-glass windows and as a painter of murals. He served in the German army during World War I. After the war he became a newspaper artist in Berlin and a well-known etcher.
Sharp drew political cartoons that were bitterly critical of the growing Nazi movement. As the influence of National Socialism intensified, he began to contribute drawings, under a pseudonym, to publications that were hostile to Hitler. After Hitler assumed power, Sharp was confronted with these drawings and told that he would be sent to a concentration camp. However, in 1934, he escaped to the United States.
His first newspaper assignment in America was making courtroom sketches for The New York Mirror...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Realist Gail Chase-Bien Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Paint, Oil
