Skip to Main Content
No image availableNo image available

Railroad Avenue

1931
(American,1904–2000)
America, 20th century
color aquatint
The Mary Spedding Milliken Memorial Collection, Gift of William Mathewson Milliken 1946.467
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Download, Print and Share

Description

This color aquatint is based on a recently discovered watercolor by Carter. One of the most imaginative interpreters of the American scene, Carter typically infused his subjects with a personal, mysterious meaning. The night railroad crossing depicted in this painting may refer to a childhood memory that brought him to a sudden awareness that we do not always control our fate. The night his younger sister died, he was walking home with his father when they came to a railroad crossing. Instead of stopping for a fast approaching train, his father whisked him up and rushed across the tracks, dangerously close to the grinding wheels and hissing steam. “Now looking back,” Carter observed, “it seems that I was made aware of the vastness of the universe and that something more powerful than any one of us was always bearing down upon each life existing at a given time upon this planet.”
Railroad Avenue

Railroad Avenue

1931

Clarence Holbrook Carter

(American,1904–2000)
America, 20th century

See Also

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.