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https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=BE87E1A81418F5F30173B7938E4978A3383C9002BDEF5A68E9DB03C3880040C7&s=24247294&se=581582166&v=2&f=2006.137_o2.jpg

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Sep 18, 2006

Apr 12, 2010

A Paramount Picture

1934

Reginald Marsh

(American, 1898–1954)

America, 20th century

Tempera on Masonite

Framed: 107.3 x 86.4 x 4.5 cm (42 1/4 x 34 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 90.8 x 70.5 cm (35 3/4 x 27 3/4 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2006.137

Location

234 Textile Gallery

Did you know?

Marsh kept meticulous records, indicating that he created this painting between September 5–24, 1934.

Description

Contrasting the real lives of everyday people with the reel lives of movie stars, this painting portrays a working-class woman standing by a Times Square theater in front of a large poster advertising Cecil B. DeMille’s blockbuster movie Cleopatra, starring Claudette Colbert in the title role. Enormously popular, such film spectacles offered escapist glamour, romance, and power amid the challenges of the Great Depression. Yet, despite the distraction of the city and its entertainments, the woman remains weary and essentially alone in the crowd.

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Provenance

By 1973

Senator William Benton; Marjorie and Charles Benton, Wilmette, IL

By 1996

Merrill C. Berman, New York, NY

By 2002

(D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc. New York, NY sold to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)

2006-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lant, Antonia, "The Curse of the Pharaoh, or How Cinema Contracted Egyptomania," October 59 (Winter 1992).
Mentioned p. 112; Reproduced p. 111.

Lant, Antonia, "The Curse of the Pharoah, or How Cinema Contracted Egyptomania," in Matthew Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar, eds., Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997). Mentioned, p. 93; Reproduced p. 92.

Lant, Antonia, "The Curse of the Pharaoh, or How Cinema Contracted Egyptomania," in Matthew Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar, eds., Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997). Mentioned p. 93; reproduced p. 92.

“’Art of Today’ Put on Exhibition at Albright Gallery, Buffalo.” The Art Digest 10 (January 15th, 1936). Rerpoduced: p. 20

Goodrich, Lloyd. Reginald Marsh. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1972. Reproduced: p. 63

Sokol, David M. “Solitude: Inner Visions in American Art.” In Solitude: Inner Visions in American Art September 25- December 30,1982. Evanston: Terra Museum of American Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 13,15

Cohen, Marilyn. Reginald Marsh’s New York: Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Photographs. New York: Whitney Museum of Art, 1983. Mentioned: p. 52; Reproduced: inside front cover

Doss, Erika. “Images of American Women in the 1930s: Reginald Marsh and Paramount Picture.” Woman’s Art Journal 4 (Fall/Winter 1983). Mentioned: p. 1,3

“Spellbound in Darkness.” In Hollywood: Legend and Reality, reproduction 17. Michael Webb, ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, in association with Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1986. Mentioned: p. 17

Cohen, Marilyn Ann. “Reginald Marsh: An Interpretation of His Art.” PhD. Diss., New York University, 1987. Mentioned: p. 73,92,182

Todd, Ellen Wiley. “Sex for Sale: Reginald Marsh’s Voluptuous Shopper.” In The ‘New Woman’ Revised: Painting and Gender Politics on Fourteenth Street. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Mentioned: p. 200, 211-217,355-358

Berman, Avis. “Reginald Marsh: Eros and the City.” In Reginald Marsh’s New York. New York: D C Moore Gallery, 1996. Mentioned: p. 1, 6-7

Charney, Leo. “In Order: Fragmentation in Film and Vaudeville.” In On the Edge of Your Seat: Popular Theater and Film in Early Twentieth-Century American Art, 107-123. Robert C. Allen, C. Lance Brockman, Leo Charney, Walter Murch, David Nasaw, Robert Silberman, Laural Weintraub, Sylvia Yount, and Rebecca Zurier. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. Reproduced: p. 118

“Highlights from the Collection.” In D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc. catalog, 2004. Reproduced: p. 22

Litt, Steven. “Museum buys Marsh’s ‘Paramount’.” Plain Dealer, September 14, 2006. Mentioned: p. F1, F4

Cole, Mark, "A Paramount Picture", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 01, January 2007 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8 archive.org

“Acquisitions.” The Cleveland Museum of Art Annual Report July 1, 2006- June 30, 2007. Mentioned: p. 25 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org

Cole, Mark. “Objects of Desire: Collecting American Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” In What’s American about American Art? A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry Adams. Manchester: the Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Hudson Hills Press, 2008. Mentioned: p. 13; Reproduced: p. 11

Adams, Henry. What’s American about American Art? A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Manchester: The Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Hudson Hills Press, 2008. Mentioned: p. 134-135

Cole, Mark. “A Picture Finds Its Frame.” Cleveland Art 50 no. 4 (July/August 2010). Mentioned: p. 26-27

Franklin, David. “Recent Acquisitions (2005-11) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1312 (July 2012). Mentioned: p. 532

Bronfen, Elisabeth. “Auf der Suche nach Kleopatra: Das Nachleben einer kulturellen Ikone.” In Kleopatra: Die Ewige Diva. Italy: Alle Rechte vorbehalten, in association with Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle de Bundespreublik Deutschland, Bonn, 2013. Mentioned: p. 8,18

Russeth, Andrew. “’Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York’ at the New-York Historical Society.” Gallerist NY, June 25, 2013.

Russeth, Andrew. “’Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York’ at the New-York Historical Society.” Observer, June 25, 2013.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014. Mentioned: p. 58

Doss, Erika. “Paramount Pictures: Reginald Marsh and the Image of the American Woman in the 1930s.” American Studies Exchange (Fall 1982). Mentioned: p. 3-12

Exhibition history

New-York Historical Society (6/21/2013 - 9/2/2013): "Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York"

Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York. New-York Historical Society, New York, NY (organizer) (June 21-September 2, 2013).

Egyptomania: Fashion's Conflicted Obsession. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 1, 2023-January 28, 2024).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=A Paramount Picture|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.137|author=Reginald Marsh|year=1934|access-date=29 May 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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