4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2013.

Harlem River, Winter

Artist Ernest Lawson (American, 1873-1939)

Date1910

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm)
Overall, Frame: 51 5/8 x 61 5/8 x 2 1/2 in. (131.1 x 156.5 x 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsAmerican art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.673

Terms

Winter
Landscape
White
Blue
Purple
Peach
Yellow
Black
Green
Brown
New York

Collections

American Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. The viewer is placed up high on a hillside covered with snow looking down on Harlem. There is snow everywhere and peeking through are glimpses of a winter landscape. The trees, rocks, and buildings in the distance seem to share the same colors in the cool winter light. The lower left corner holds the strongest contrast of light and dark. As the hillside moves upward diagonally, to the center right of the canvas, the contrast fades as it merges into the grayish blue of a winter sky.

Label TextErnest Lawson American, 1873–1939 Harlem River, Winter, 1910 Oil on canvas To render the gritty layers of earth and snow in this rocky landscape, Ernest Lawson juxtaposed dense blotches of paint with patches of exposed canvas. Just as the French Impressionists often studied the dirty streets of Paris, Lawson’s largest paintings explore Manhattan’s northern tip, a world of barren trees and tenement buildings. His mastery of color, seen in this painting’s beautiful gold and violet tones, made such unattractive subjects popular and profitable. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.673