Image Not Available

Eleventh Street

Artist Reginald Marsh (American, 1898 - 1954)

CultureAmerican

Date1950

MediumPen | Brush | Chinese ink | Wash | Paper

DimensionsOverall: 30 5/8 x 21 3/4 in. (77.8 x 55.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/8 x 28 3/4 in. (94.3 x 73 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated lower right: Reginald Marsh 1950

Credit LineGift of Henry Hecht to the Chrysler Museum of Art at Provincetown, 1962 and to Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, 1971

Object number71.734

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a pen and brush with Chinese ink painting, also with grey wash and touches of red. It depicts a young woman clutching a handbag, walking on a city street. A man, partially concealed at the right, looks at her. Elements of classical architecture are in the background.

Label TextReginald Marsh American (1898-1954) Eleventh Street, 1950 Pen and brush with Chinese ink with gray wash on paper Gift of Henry Hecht to the Chrysler Museum of Art at Provincetown, 1962, and to the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, 1971 71.734 Among the liveliest of the American Scene artists, Reginald Marsh established his reputation in the 1920s and 1930s with his boisterous and often bawdy depictions of ordinary New Yorkers in the midst of city life. His repertoire of subjects ranged from bustling Manhattan street scenes crowded with shop girls to seamier portrayals of Bowery derelicts and Broadway burlesque queens (see illustration on gallery label). From 1937 Marsh lived on East 12th Street in lower Manhattan and operated a studio at the corner of West Union Square and 14th Street, just a few blocks from the setting of the Chrysler's large and stately drawing Eleventh Street. In Marsh's day, the neighborhood bustled with department stores, banks, and movie theaters, and the artist often depicted the young women who crowded the area to work and shop. The woman in Eleventh Street may well be a secretary or shop girl heading home at the end of the workday. The woman's buxom form-typical of Marsh's images of female subjects-has caught the eye of a secret observer at right, a detail that invites the viewer to join him in playing the voyeur. Conceived with simple, bold strokes of the pen, Eleventh Street beautifully exemplifies the Chinese ink drawings of Marsh's final years. ProvenanceFrank Rehn Gallery, New York; Tirca Karlis Gallery; Henry Hecht, Washington, D.C.; Gift of Henry Hecht to the Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1962; and to The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition HistoryProbably Rehn Galleries, New York, N.Y., October 1950. (New York Times review) "Artist in the City," Swain School of Design, William W. Crapo Gallery, New Bedford, Mass., October 17 - November 22, 1968. (Exh. cat. no. 34) "One Hundred Drawings in The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., March 2 - May 6, 1979. (Exh. cat. no. 99) "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Drawings from the Permanent Collection," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., November 30 - January 13, 1985. "Special Exhibition," Prints and Drawings Gallery, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., Fall 1989. Published References_Artist in the City_, exh. cat., William W. Crapo Gallery, Swain School of Design, New Bedford, Mass., 1968, no. 34. Eric M. Zafran, _One Hundred Drawings in the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk_, exh. cat., Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1979, 35, no. 99. Joyce M. Szabo, "Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Drawings from the Permanent Collection," _The Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 15 (January 1985): cover and inside story. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 191, no. 120. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6