Reginald Marsh
The Barker
1931

Name: The Barker
Brand: Reginald Marsh
Price: 3500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

The Barker Etching, 1931 Unsigned (as usual for the Whitney edition) Numbered in pencil lower left Blind stamp of the Whitney Museum (WM) lower right From: Reginald Marsh, Thirty Etchings and Engravings Edition: 114, edition of 100 (10/100), plus 14 proofs not for sale Published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1969 Printed on Linweave Text Cover paper by J. Bertrand Andersen of Andersen-Lamb Photogravure Co. of Brooklyn. Framed in a carved partner white gold leaf frame with museum glass Image: 10 x 8 1/16" Frame: 19 1/4 x 17 1/4" Reference: Sasowski 170 iv/IV, Whitney edition One of the GREAT Depression era American fine prints. Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) Reginald Marsh was born over a small cafe on Paris' Left Bank in 1898, the child of artist parents. He was brought to the United States in 1900 and was drawing before he was three. He attended Lawrenceville Academy and studied art at Yale University and later at the Art Students League. During this time he worked primarily as an illustrator for New York newspapers and magazines. He went briefly to Europe, studying in Paris in 1925 and 1926. On his return, he turned seriously to painting. He was much influenced by urban realists John Sloan, George Luks and Kenneth Hayes Miller. In 1929 he was introduced to the egg-tempera medium, which he used extensively the rest of his life. An admirer of Rubens and Delacroix, he disliked modernist art; indeed, his lifelong preoccupation was with people - enjoying themselves at beaches, at amusement parks, or on crowded city streets. Marsh was a second-generation Ash Can School painter and printmaker, best known as an urban regionalist. He spent his days sketching in small notebooks with a pen. Marsh devoted his career to depicting people going about their everyday business including Bowery bums, vulgar party goers, and persons elbowing their way in crowded subways. He was also a printmaker, completing about 236 etchings, lithographs, and engravings, and devoted much time, especially in the 1930s, to printmaking. Marsh taught at the Art Students' League from 1935 until his death in 1954. His work, widely acclaimed during his lifetime, can be found in major public and private collections throughout the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. He died in 1954 of a heart attack in Dorset, Vermont. Courtesy: AskArt Sources include: Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California. Dictionary of American Art by Matthew Baigell, published by Harper and Row, 1979 Time magazine, November 7, 1955

Creator:

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954, American)

Creation Year:

1931

Dimensions:

Height: 10 in (25.4 cm)Width: 8.125 in (20.64 cm)

Medium:

Etching

Period:

1930-1939

Condition:

Beautifully framed in white gold leaf with Museum Optium Glass.

Gallery Location:

Fairlawn, OH

Reference Number:

Seller: FA97041stDibs: LU1406728512

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Reginald Marsh

Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France, in 1898. His family returned to the U.S. in 1900, settling in New Jersey. The Marsh family moved to New Rochelle, New York, in 1914, where Reginald attended the Riverview Military Academy until 1915. Marsh spent his senior year at the Lawrenceville School where he drew for the school's annual. Marsh then attended Yale School of Art in 1916–20 where he became the star illustrator for The Yale Record and, later, its art editor. In his newspaper work Marsh exhibited a graphic skill and a gift for pictorial humor.

On graduating from Yale in 1920, Marsh moved to New York City where he supported himself as a freelance illustrator for newspapers and magazines, such as Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar. In 1922, Marsh became a staff artist for The Daily News, first drawing city life and then a column of vaudeville illustrations. When The New Yorker began in 1925, Marsh became a staff member, contributing through 1931. These illustration jobs provided Marsh with a good income and a great amount of free time, which allowed him to study painting at the Art Students League on and off through the 1920s with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Luks. When Marsh began to paint in earnest in 1923, he joined the Whitney Studio Club, where he had one-man exhibitions in 1924 and 1928.

In the early 1920s Marsh made his first trip to Coney Island on a project for Vanity Fair. He was instantly drawn to the raucous environment of extremes, capturing the boardwalks, beaches and sideshows in his sketchbooks. Marsh often remained in New York for the summer to spend time at Coney Island. The rest of the year Marsh painted industrial subjects. He also enjoyed recording the physical and social life of a newly commercialized city, focusing on taxi-dance halls, burlesque, Coney Island, subways and the Bowery.

In 1929 Marsh took a studio near Union Square in New York where he remained for most of his life, roaming the streets with his sketchbook. The same sketches he worked up for his newspaper and magazine illustrations found their way into his paintings.

The 1930s and 1940s were very successful for Marsh. He exhibited in most of the annual exhibitions of contemporary American art at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1924–54), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1932–57), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1932–52), the Art Institute of Chicago (1928–49) and the National Academy of Design (1927–49). He also had many one-man exhibitions at the Frank K. Rehn Galleries in New York.

Marsh began teaching at the Art Students League in 1935 where he soon became one of the most popular teachers. In the spring of 1954, Marsh was chosen to receive the gold medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an extremely high award in the American cultural world.

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