Artwork Page for Church Street El

Details / Information for Church Street El

Church Street El

1920

Charles Sheeler

(American, 1883–1965)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 60 x 67.5 x 6 cm (23 5/8 x 26 9/16 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 41 x 48.5 cm (16 1/8 x 19 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1977.43
Public Domain
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Location
226A American Modern
Print
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Did You Know?

Sheeler and his good friend, the poet William Carlos Williams, patronized speakeasies together during Prohibition.

Description

Capturing the soaring heights of New York City, this painting is a dramatic bird's-eye view of Broadway and Wall Street, showing a conglomeration of buildings at left and center, and the Church Street elevated train at right. Sheeler based his composition on an image from the short movie Manhatta (1920-21), which he made with the photographer Paul Strand. One of the first avant-garde American films, Manhatta celebrates the dynamic metropolis through a series of carefully composed shots of Lower Manhattan. As typical with Sheeler's work, the artist simplified forms and eliminated textures in Church Street El to concentrate on rhythmic interplay of shapes and color, and patterns of light and shadow.
A square oil painting from a high perspective looks down over the geometrical shapes of tall buildings in a city. A train passes by on the right side of the painting. The buildings are painted in muted shades of red, white, and gray, and their stark shadows in black.

Church Street El

1920

Charles Sheeler

(American, 1883–1965)
America

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