- US dollars
US Custom House
Public Library 42nd Street
- 25 x 48 in
$5,000
US dollars
This watercolor focuses on Beauty, the marble figure above the south fountain on the Fifth Avenue facade of the New York Public Library, to the left of the main entrance. The library was designed by Carrère & Hastings and opened in 1911 on the site of the former Croton Reservoir. Frederick MacMonnies was commissioned to create the two allegorical figures flanking the entrance: Truth to the north, seated with a sphinx, and Beauty to the south, accompanied by Pegasus. Both were carved in Carrara marble and placed above terraced basins of Vermont marble. Beauty stands within a shallow niche, Pegasus at her shoulder, one arm raised and drapery falling from her hip. The painting runs warm through the upper half, with ochre and cream across the niche and raised arm, then gradually cools into gray and violet toward the base. Her face remains the palest passage in the composition, which quietly draws the eye upward. Carved above the figure is a line from John Greenleaf Whittier: "Beauty, old yet ever new, eternal voice and inward word." * Framing: Framed; frame not shown * Room view: For scale and presentation only
September, 2008
Watercolor painting
Figure, Landmark, Effigy, NYC, Public Library
- US dollars
$5,000
US dollars
Peninsula Hotel II
- 22 x 31 undefined
- US dollars
$3,800
US dollars
This watercolor, “Peninsula Hotel II,” focuses on Diana, one of the two sculpted figures flanking the bull's-eye window above the main entrance of the Peninsula Hotel on West 55th Street in New York City. She is identified by the crescent moon at her brow. The building was erected between 1902 and 1905 by the Fifty-Fifth Street Company and opened as the Hotel Gotham, at a cost of $2.25 million. It rose at a moment when Fifth Avenue was shifting from a street of private mansions into a commercial thoroughfare, competing directly with the St. Regis across the avenue. The painting emphasizes the upward angle from the street below. Diana twists at the waist, one hand braced behind her on the cornice, her head turned up and away. The cropping is close. From the street she is a pale shape against the wall. Here she fills the frame, holding a pose she has held since 1905. Lavender and cool gray carry most of the painting, while warmer pinks at the shoulder and drapery shift the weight and hold the composition steady. “Peninsula Hotel II” was featured in American Watercolor Magazine. Diana and Ceres were each painted alone before being brought together around the circular window in “Peninsula Hotel III.” * Framing: Framed; frame not shown * Room view: For scale and presentation only
June, 2008
Watercolor painting
Figure, Effigy, Landmark
- US dollars
$3,800
US dollars
US Custom House
- 30 x 22 undefined
- US dollars
$3,800
US dollars
This watercolor, “US Custom House,” focuses on one of the carved heads set above the windows of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. Cass Gilbert designed the building, which rose between 1902 and 1907 as headquarters for the Port of New York's customs operation. Daniel Chester French's four seated continents - America, Asia, Europe and Africa - sit at the entrance. Above the windows of the main facade are eight keystone heads representing what was then described as the “eight races of mankind.” This figure is hooded, the drapery wrapped closely at the throat, and set within a wreath of fruit, shells and feathers beneath a heavy cornice. The painting is worked almost entirely in gray-blue and violet, with warm light catching the upper edges and the cornice above. The deepest shadow falls across the eyes, leaving the face partly concealed. The customs service moved out in the 1970s. Since 1994, the building has housed the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The eight heads remain above the windows. This is the first of several paintings from this building. * Framing: Framed; frame not shown * Room view: For scale and presentation only
July, 2008
Watercolor painting
Effigy, Face, Building, Architecture
- US dollars
$3,800
US dollars