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Artwork Page for Church Street El

Details / Information for Church Street El

Church Street El

1920
(American, 1883–1965)
America
oil on canvas
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.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1977.43
Location: 226A American Modern
Public Domain
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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.
An oil painting from a high perspective looking 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

See Also

Videos

Bird's Eye View of Lower Manhattan

Charles Sheeler and Photography

The Film, Manhatta

Precisionism

Church Street El

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