Reginald Marsh, Street Scene, Twelfth Avenue, 1928
Reginald Marsh (American, born France, 1898 - 1954)
Pavonia---Jersey City (or Street Scene, Twelfth Avenue), 1928
Oil on canvas, 20 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches (51.12 x 76.84 cm)
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the Union Pacific Foundation, Mrs. Herbert O. Peet, and the Nelson Gallery Foundation, F90-37
With the help of the Union Pacific Foundation we were able to acquire this nicely observed street scene by Marsh, which has all the elements one wants in a Marsh: a striding woman, a bunch of men talking, a luncheonette, a tenement, telephone wires, a locomotive spewing smoke, and lots of other well-observed elements of the urban scene. It had formerly belonged to the filmmaker Steven Spielberg and came on the market as a result of his divorce from Amy Irving. You can see why Spielberg liked the painting: it feels like a scene from a movie.
Bibliography
Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1991, pp. 155-56.