Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France, in 1898. His family returned to the U.S. in 1900, settling in New Jersey. The Marsh family moved to New Rochelle, New York, in 1914, where Reginald attended the Riverview Military Academy until 1915. Marsh spent his senior year at the Lawrenceville School where he drew for the school's annual. Marsh then attended Yale School of Art in 1916–20 where he became the star illustrator for The Yale Record and, later, its art editor. In his newspaper work Marsh exhibited a graphic skill and a gift for pictorial humor.
On graduating from Yale in 1920, Marsh moved to New York City where he supported himself as a freelance illustrator for newspapers and magazines, such as Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar. In 1922, Marsh became a staff artist for The Daily News, first drawing city life and then a column of vaudeville illustrations. When The New Yorker began in 1925, Marsh became a staff member, contributing through 1931. These illustration jobs provided Marsh with a good income and a great amount of free time, which allowed him to study painting at the Art Students League on and off through the 1920s with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Luks. When Marsh began to paint in earnest in 1923, he joined the Whitney Studio Club, where he had one-man exhibitions in 1924 and 1928.
In the early 1920s Marsh made his first trip to Coney Island on a project for Vanity Fair. He was instantly drawn to the raucous environment of extremes, capturing the boardwalks, beaches and sideshows in his sketchbooks. Marsh often remained in New York for the summer to spend time at Coney Island. The rest of the year Marsh painted industrial subjects. He also enjoyed recording the physical and social life of a newly commercialized city, focusing on taxi-dance halls, burlesque, Coney Island, subways and the Bowery.
In 1929 Marsh took a studio near Union Square in New York where he remained for most of his life, roaming the streets with his sketchbook. The same sketches he worked up for his newspaper and magazine illustrations found their way into his paintings.
The 1930s and 1940s were very successful for Marsh. He exhibited in most of the annual exhibitions of contemporary American art at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1924–54), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1932–57), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1932–52), the Art Institute of Chicago (1928–49) and the National Academy of Design (1927–49). He also had many one-man exhibitions at the Frank K. Rehn Galleries in New York.
Marsh began teaching at the Art Students League in 1935 where he soon became one of the most popular teachers. In the spring of 1954, Marsh was chosen to receive the gold medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an extremely high award in the American cultural world.
Find original Reginald Marsh prints, drawings and paintings on 1stDibs.
"Tugboat at Dock" Reginald Marsh, Modern WPA Industrial Ship, New York Docks
By Reginald Marsh
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh Tugboat at Dock, circa 1937 Signed lower right Watercolor and pencil on paper 13 3/4 x 20 inches Housed in a Lowy frame. Provenance: Sotheby'...
Pencil, Watercolor, Paper
$85,000
Frozen Custard
By Reginald Marsh
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh, an urban Realist of the 1930s and 40s, chronicled New York’s working-class life with exuberant, documentary-style paintings that focused on crowds rather than individ...
Tempera, Board
The Cannonball, Impressionist Locomotive Watercolor by Reginald Marsh
By Reginald Marsh
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Reginald Marsh, American (1898 - 1954) Title: The "Cannonball" Year: 1936 Medium: Watercolor on Paper, signed, titled, and dated l.r. Size: 16.5 in. x 22.5 in. (41.91 cm x 57...
Watercolor
Locomotive, American Impressionist Train Watercolor by Reginald Marsh
By Reginald Marsh
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Reginald Marsh, American (1898 - 1954) Title: Locomotive Year: 1932 Medium: Watercolor on Paper, signed and dated l.r. Size: 14 in. x 20 in. (35.56 cm x 50.8 cm) Frame Size: ...
Watercolor
#3
By Russ Havard
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NY & LA --The process of endless building and reconfiguring transcends the mere physical and encompasses the spiritual and symbolic. The scars a...
Paper, Watercolor
$569
H 4.25 in W 4.25 in
Atmospheric French City Square With Figures Archway And Trees Watercolor
By Pierre Neveu
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Atmospheric French City Square With Figures Archway And Trees Watercolor Artist: Pierre Neveu (French b.1929) Medium: Watercolour and Gouache on artists paper, unframed Size (...
Watercolor, Gouache
$26,000
H 37 in W 32 in D 3 in
Sandscape- Mid-Century Tempera Painting of Michigan Coastal Sand Dunes Landscape
Located in Marco Island, FL
This is an important, large tempera painting of the sand dunes that line Michigan's coast. Zolton Sepeshy, who lived and painted in Michigan, also wrote a book on tempera painting. ...
Masonite, Tempera
Zoo New York City with Sea Lions
By Constantin Alajalov
Located in Miami, FL
A charming and stylized depiction of a day at the Central Park Zoo. with World War Two uniformed visitors front and center. Sea lions put on a show in front o...
Gouache
$7,250
H 20.25 in W 20.25 in
Houses in Zoar, Ohio Landscape, Early 20th Century Cleveland School
By August F. Biehle
Located in Beachwood, OH
August Frederick Biehle (1885-1979) Houses in Zoar, c. 1921 Gouache, litho crayon, colored pencil and graphite on paper Signed lower right 14 x 19 inches 20.25 x 25.25 inches, framed...
Crayon, Gouache, Color Pencil, Graphite
$2,114Sale Price|30% Off
H 13.78 in W 16.15 in
Row of Plane Trees In Winter - Maussane-les-Alpilles
By Yves Brayer
Located in London, GB
'Row of Plane Trees In Winter - Maussane-les-Alpilles', Provence, watercolour and pencil on art paper, by Yves Brayer (1946). A line of Plane trees greets visitors to almost every vi...
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
$3,000
H 17 in W 23 in
Farm Landscape, Zoar, Ohio, American Modern, Gouache on Paper, Signed, C. 1923
By August F. Biehle
Located in Beachwood, OH
August Frederick Biehle (1885-1979) Farm Landscape, Zoar, c. 1923 Gouache, litho crayon and graphite on paper Signed lower right 14 x 19 inches 17 x 23 inches, framed A versatile pa...
Crayon, Gouache, Graphite
$617
H 8.47 in W 9.65 in
India Watercolour RCA Architect Painting Palace Udaipur Lake Travel Orange Blues
Located in Norfolk, GB
There is something compelling about drawings and sketches made by architects. Loose and full of life this delicious little study, made on the spot, beautifully captures the essence of place. Made during one of Patterson's early tours to India it shows the gloriously majestic Palace Museum in Udaipur, Rajasthan, which sits on the highest point overlooking Lake Pichola and the City. The delicate wash of terracottas, pinks and reds offers us the feel of sun on the old stones. India Palace Museum (Udaipur), watercolour & pencil on paper, image 9.5cm x 14cm, framed 21.5cm x 24.5cm, Artist Stamp, signed in pencil bottom left, 1990 Doug Patterson...
Watercolor, Archival Paper, Pencil
$1,208Sale Price|20% Off
H 6.75 in W 9.75 in
Fine 17th Century Dutch Old Master Drawing Hunting Party Landscape
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Hunting Party Attributed to Dirk Maes (1659-1717) Dutch. Figures in a Classical Landscape, Watercolour and wash on paper, Mounted, unframed image 6.75" x 9.75" (17.1 x 24.7cm)...
Watercolor, Pencil
Post Anthropocene
By Francis DiFronzo
Located in Fairfield, CT
Born in San Pedro, California in 1969, Francis DiFronzo has been painting and exhibiting his artwork in the United States for more than thirty years. ...
Oil, Watercolor, Gouache, Wood Panel
$5,500
H 23 in W 33 in D 1.75 in
Antique American Realist Harvest Landscape Painting Bucks County Pennslyvania
By Frank F. English
Located in Portland, OR
Antique American watercolor painting, landscape harvest farm scene by Frank F. English (1854 - 1922), Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Circa 1900. A very attractive painting by the celebrated Pennsylvania artist Frank F. English, the location is in Point Pleasant, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The painting depicts a scene of blue skies with two farmers tossing hay with pitchforks & two horses harnessed to a hay wagon, with barns to the background. The painting signed lower right " Frank F. English", condition is excellent this very charming painting is ready to hang on your wall. Biography Frank F. English was born in Louisville Kentucky in 1854. In the early 1880s, he studied for five years in the evening classes of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His instructors included Thomas Eakins, James P. Kelly and Thomas Anshutz. However, English's reputation primarily rests with his outstanding facility as a watercolorist; most of his known paintings are executed in this medium. English's propensity for its use coincides, appropriately enough, with the watercolor's growing popularity among other American painters. The American Water Color Society brought the medium special prominence by the late 1860s, and acceptance on the level of oil painting in 1876. That same year, the society was invited to display its works at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Its members exhibited 116 watercolors, and their public exposure was enormous. It is safe to assume that during the 159-day Centennial, Frank English was among the nearly 10 million exposition attendees, surpassing attendance records at all preceding world's fairs. At age twenty-two, English, traveled to Philadelphia to see works by the Society's notables such as Samuel Colman, R. Swain Gifford, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Albert Fitch...
Paper, Watercolor
Rabbit Hunters
By Roger Medearis
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited at Medearis' solo show at Kende Galleries, New York, in 1949 (Medearis’ record book, a copy of which is held by Vose Galleries in Boston, MA, indicates this is painting “No. 23” and that is was completed in 1947 and sold via Kende Galleries (at Gimbel Brothers...
Tempera, Board
Sold
H 23.5 in W 29.5 in
Tugboats in the Harbor. American Landscape -1930s Industrial Harbor Scene
By Reginald Marsh
Located in Marco Island, FL
A fine 1938 watercolor done of Tugboats in the Harbor by Reginald Marsh. The painting depicts the crush of boats at the shoreline during the later part of the American Great Depress...
Archival Paper, Watercolor
Sold
H 26 in W 32 in D 2 in
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, Cityscape Watercolor by Reginald Marsh
By Reginald Marsh
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Reginald Marsh, American (1898 - 1954) Title: Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan II Year: 1938 Medium: Watercolor on Paper, signed and dated l.r. Size: 14 in. x 20 in. (35.5...
Watercolor
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan I
By Reginald Marsh
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Reginald Marsh, American (1898 - 1954) Title: Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan I Year: 1938 Medium: Watercolor on Paper, signed and dated l.r. Size: 14 in. x 20 in. (3...
Watercolor