1957.104
Penn Station
Artist
Reginald Marsh
(3/14/1898 - 7/3/1954)
Title
Penn Station
Creation Date
1898-1954
Dimensions
11 3/16 in. x 15 3/4 in. (28.4 cm. x 40 cm.)
Object Type
print
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
lithograph on paper
Credit Line
Museum Purchase
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1957.104
Shortly after his graduation from Yale University in 1920, Reginald Marsh moved to New York City where he worked as an illustrator for various publications, and then as a cartoonist for The New Yorker. At the Art Students League, he continued to develop his artistic practice by studying painting with John Sloan, and printmaking with Kenneth Hayes Miller. Like these two artists, Marsh enjoyed recreating the complex social interactions he observed in New York City's vibrant public spaces, such as crowded theaters, well-populated beaches and public transit. Able to wield the lithographic pencil with confidence, he produced intricate compositions like this one, which depicts the bustling masses as they move through Penn Station. The subjects' varied skin tones and attire testify to the diversity of the city's working residents, while the print's loose execution underscores the frenetic pace of city life. As Marsh demonstrates here in the compressed corridor of subway pedestrian traffic, a public transportation terminus is a democratic space where all are subject to the same crowds and delays.
