The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 18, 2025
Railroad Avenue
1931
(American, 1904–2000)
Location: Not on view
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.”- 1946–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; March 28 - July 18, 2004. "Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age," no exhibition catalogue.Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919-1940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 28-September 10, 1989).Leona E. Prasse, Connoisseur and Curator. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 28-August 25, 1985).Nocturnal Impressions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 12, 1985).
- {{cite web|title=Railroad Avenue|url=false|author=Clarence Holbrook Carter|year=1931|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1946.467