Coney Island Beach America, 20th century

Coney Island Beach

1934

Reginald Marsh

(American, 1898–1954)

America, 20th century

etching

Platemark: 24.7 x 24.7 cm (9 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.); Sheet: 33 x 40.4 cm (13 x 15 7/8 in.)

Gift of Charlotte Trenkamp in memory of Henry Trenkamp, Jr. 1993.186

Catalogue raisonné: Sasowsky 153

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Did You Know?

Coney Island, located on an Atlantic Ocean beach in the borough of Brooklyn, became a resort for urban inhabitants in 1875, when the railroad opened regular service to the outer borough.

Description

No corner of New York City escaped Reginald Marsh’s observation, but his favorite subject was the beach of Coney Island, where, he said, “a million near-naked bodies could be seen at once, a phenomenon unparalleled in history.” The human pyramids in both of these compositions imply ample physical touching, and, indeed, critics described Marsh’s beach crowds as “vulgar, sweating, bestial.” The toppled pyramids and twisting forms recall Renaissance paintings, such as Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina from 1504. Unlike Michelangelo, however, Marsh tended to focus on the buxom siren or femme fatale, a trope of Hollywood cinema in the 1930s.