1 15 1 https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/7649ed040d3ca51181e6a91dfa5a8fb2.pdf 74e62c02af2ae5573112af5a4ee36efd PDF Text Text ���������������������������������� https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/2c0d523a9dfeb104de75a3f570a3efa3.pdf 790f76241b4e79100754aad2115f29d5 PDF Text Text Hpiaiia 101 fei=® ffla i fe Si B S W i f ■/. - I ■ �BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL �BETWEEN HE Union Square I Exhibition curated by­ Stanley I Grand - 3 V ,ii> 5- Essays by James M. Dennis and Kathleen Stanley I Grand E.S.FARl WILKES WILKES- SORDONI ART GALLERY / W WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA 35 Edith Nankivell Union Square, 1935 etching and aquatint, 91/; x 11 Collection ofJohn Beck Photograph by Professional Photographic Services JANUARY 21 THROUGH MARGE �BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL Union Square in the 1930s Exhibition curated by Stanley I Grand Essays by James M. Dennis and Kathleen M. Daniels Stanley I Grand I V i E.S. FARLEY LIBRARY WILKES UNIVERSITY WILKES-BARRE, PA SORDOMI ART GALLERY / WILKES UNIVERSITY WILKES-EARPE. PENNSYLVANIA JANUARY 2i THROUGH MARCH 3, 1996 ft IQUft Soidonl Ait Galluiy �A MODERN Isabel Bishop s Dante James M, Dermis University of i’7.< ■-r-.w-Af 'f/. ;i Kathleen M. DanieL College of St. Catherine 7V5 0 3 0 Wq 05 I ‘iCi* 6 Isabel Bishop Dante and Virgil in Union Square, 1932 oil on canvas, 27 x 52Va Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Gift of the Friends of Art, 1971 Photograph courtesy Delaware Art Museum 4 17 Isabel Bishop Virgil and Dante in Union Square—Study, 1932 graphite, 13 x 26 Collection of Palmer Museum of An, The Pennsylvania State UniversityPhotograph courtesy Palmer Museum of Art A s AN “AmEXICAN-ScENE” z L Bishop is generally assoc Street School of the 1930s whit Kenneth Hayes Miller. Edward and Raphael Soyer. At first. Bi borhoed on Fourteenth Street logist Dr. Harold G. Wolff ip. subway from Riverdale to her the northwest corner of L’nioi etchings, and paintings contin (more often than men) who li shopped around this near-to-c Created two years before her r ing, indeed mystifying, of all I in Union Square (Cat. no. 6) c< contrived display of densely p shadowy silhouettes of the rot dozen figures distributed aero: front row of the crowd, repres would never during that perio Union Square en masse, with Virgil. Bishop's painting is th; qualify as a genre depiction o possibly a history painting in vernacular traditions. Rather, should be interpreted allegori Tenuous interpretations of upon a familiar New York Ci published, and Bishop herself personal reasons for the units Questions are raised but go u example, did she move the Gt trian statue from the south er around, and align it in the ce guests? In pondering such ma ■: 1996 James M Dennis and Kathl 5 �P inte in Union Square-Study, 1932 *26 ■f Palmer Museum of Art, vania State University courtesy Palmer Museum of Art A MODERN AMERICAN PURGATORY Isabel Bishop’s Dante and Virgil in Union Square, 1932 James M. Dennis University of Wisconsin-Madison Kathleen M. Daniels College ofSt. Catherine A s an “A.merican-Scene” urban realist, Isabel offer more precise hypotheses with regard to the painting’s 1\. Bishop is generally associated with the Fourteenth diverse allusions than have heretofore been attempted. Street School of the 1930s which included her teacher In pursuing a plausible explanation for Dante and Kenneth Hayes Miller, Edward Laning, Reginald Marsh, Virgil’s visit to a working-class gathering place suddenly and Raphael Soyer. At first, Bishop lived in the neigh­ crowded with fashionably dressed members of the borhood on Fourteenth Street; but after marrying neuro­ middle class, we will look into Bishop’s personal and logist Dr. Harold G. Wolff in 1934, she commuted by professional origins and review the changing conditions subway from Riverdale to her new studio overlooking of the square and its immediate surroundings as they relate or fail to relate to the painting. We will also the northwest comer of Union Square. Her drawings, compare and contrast Bishop’s stage-like depiction to etchings, and paintings continued to depict women other examples of her Union Square work and to (more often than men) who lived, loitered, worked, or shopped around this near-to-downtown Manhattan hub. relevant examples by her neighborhood colleagues. Most Created two years before her marriage, the most intrigu­ significant, we will consider how the painting represents ing, indeed mystifying, of all her works, Dante and Virgil her basic social beliefs, in particular her faith in the American ideal of upward mobility. in Union Square (Cat. no. 6) confronts a strangely Directly related to the latter consideration, it must be contrived display of densely packed people with the shadowy silhouettes of the robed, literary pair. Some two noted that Bishop lived a comfortable, apparently contented, and perhaps even complacent life throughout dozen figures distributed across the foreground as the the Great Depression and beyond, enjoying her privi­ front row of the crowd, represent a social class that leges without any apparent qualms. Therefore, simply to would never during that period have jammed into assume that Dante and Virgil are visiting a twentieth­ Union Square en masse, with or without Dante and century inferno, is, in view of her secure, optimistic Virgil Bishop’s painting is thereby unreal. It does not qualify as a genre depiction of ordinary activity nor is it outlook, misleading. In a 1976 interview with Cindy Nemser, Bishop stated unequivocally, “But the Square possibly a history painting in either the classical or the was not the Inferno to me. It was not hell; it was beauti­ vernacular traditions. Rather, its personal iconography ful.”1 Such a positive opinion complies with her confi­ should be interpreted allegorically. dence in an ongoing condition of social progress. Tenuous interpretations of this curious intrusion Accordingly, her many female figures “in motion,” as upon a familiar New York City setting have been opposed to relatively passive male figures, might be published, and Bishop herself suggested rather vague interpreted as signifying the assertive “New Woman” in personal reasons for the unusual nature of the painting. quest of equality. On the other hand, if viewed as Questions are raised but go unanswered. Why, for willingly submissive in expression, her office-girl example, did she move the George Washington eques­ portrayals by the mid-thirties represent young women trian statue from the south end of the square, turn it biding their time in the marriage market.2 While not a around, and align it in the center with the two mystery highway of guaranteed upward mobility, marriage was guests? In pondering such manipulations, we intend to the mapped-out route for most; and Bishop, newly married to a prosperous man herself, apparently had no argument with this custom, accepting it as a given in a t. ]996 James M. Dennis and Kathleen M. Daniels 5 Bb-rij’Vtw �On the other hand, her relationship with generally parallels that of Virgil to Dante: figures, some with fur collars and at least two with children, hold the front line of Dante andVirgil s carefully orchestrated Union Square. With such promi­ nence they could stand for the dreamed-of destination of Bishop’s hopeful young women working their way up. A number of parallels can be drawn between Isabel Bishop’s life up to 1932 and Dante and Virgil in Union Square. As outside observers, Dante and Virgil are clearly separated from the crowd of people that fills the square. When examining Bishop’s earlier years, one soon discovers a pattern of social separation to the point of seclusion. She too was an outsider looking on. The last bom of her parents’ five children, Bishop was thirteen years younger than the second of two sets of twins who preceded her. She grew up in a working-class district of Detroit on a street bordering a more affluent neighborhood. Her well-educated, intellectual parents turned their backs on their immediate neighbors and would not allow their youngest child to play with the children of the block. She watched them enviously from her windows, excluded: We were very isolated in Detroit and had almost no social life because although we didn’t have the money, we identified with the big houses on the next block. I wasn’t supposed to play with the children in my block, or be connected with them but wanted to be. I thought, “Oh, they have a warmer life than I do-they all know each other, and see each other and we are isolated.”4 She would continue to express this feeling as an artist depicting incidental activities viewed from her Manhat­ tan studio: I think my being drawn to the 14th Street people and my sympathetic fascination with them came partly out of my isolation as a child and my fascination with my block, although I didn't realize it myself until a long time after.5 Remembering her childhood generally as a state of lonely detachment, Bishop also spoke of painful estrangement especially from her mother: “I wanted to be special. I always wanted more than I got. I overheard her say one day she felt like a grandmother to me. I hated that. I wanted a mother.”6 The reference to Dante in the painting, as well as the statuesque coldness of its female figures, in particular the mother on the left side, might be associated with the frustration she suffered because of her mother’s lack of interest in her: All the years of my growing up, she was totally absorbed a,tlng Dante’1 ^nize now that she was living with the disappointment of wanting to be a writer and of never getting published. But I was so mixed up then. Eveiyone was trymg to do something to me, excent mv' mother. She was indifferent.’ * P ? 6 r ' My father adopted me as his special intere ■ ::. . family as divided into two groups, “we" and " J- Mother and my sisters and brothers were on >• and my father and I were on the other.’ In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Virgil joins Dant: j mentor, guide, and protector on a joumes throigh the afterlife. In real life, Dante, as a proto-Renaissance, classical humanist, had turned to Virgil’s writings in search of inspiration and a model for his own As Virgil had been of help to Dante, Bishop’s father was of constant assistance to her on many levels. Consequently despite her mother’s translation of Dante’s masterpiece, Bishop dedicated the painting to her father. It was scaled to hang over the fireplace mantle of her parents' house in White Plains, New York, where they lived from the time of his retirement as a teacher of Greek and Latin until his death.’ Following several years’ study at the Art Students League, completely financed by her father’s wealthy cousin, James Bishop Ford, Bishop settled into a studio­ residence at 9 West Fourteenth Street a year or so before the Stock Market crash. There she stayed until her marriage in 1934, when she moved her studio to 857 Broadway, catercomer from the northwest end of Union Square.10 By that time, with encouragement from her close friends Reginald Marsh and the painter-critic Guy P6ne du Bois, she had made a good start in overcoming the stilted, rather bulbous figural forms learned from her academic instructor, Kenneth Hayes Miller." Though she attributed her disciplined techniques and working habits to him, while possibly looking to the figural style of Edward Laning as well (Cat. no. 29 ), her drawings and etchings of this period foreshadow a personal style advanced by Dante and Virgil in Union Square. Without adopting a Robert Henri, “life over art’’ spontaneity once practiced by John Sloan and George Luks, its finished figures, while precisely contoured, do retain a slight painterly quality inherited from prepara­ tory studies (Cat. nos. 16, 17, and 18). The ironic display of highly prosperous-looking people on what had become a gathering place of depres­ sion-stricken workers may have been aimed at the artist’s parents, a kind of compensation in view of their inability to achieve the upper-middle-class status they envied, a common dilemma of secondary teachers and scholars. Historically, such a fantasy of economic elevation harks back to an earlier phase in the life of Union Square. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the Union Square district, especially Fourteenth Street, flourished as New’ York’s center of fashionable entertain­ ment and shopping, catering to, among others, the residents of mansions around the square. Built in 1854 15 Isabel Bishop Union Square Looking East, graphite, 6Lz * 9'.; Collection of Sordom Art Gift ofJudge Herbert W. J 16 Isabel Bishop Union Squa-e Lulling Ezi, graphite, 4 * 51; Courtesy ot DC Moore G Photograph by Profession 7 �cd, her relationship with her father ly parallels that of Virgil to Dante: ither adopted me as his special interest. He saw the y as divided into two groups, “we” and “they-.” er and my sisters and brothers were on one side, iv father and I were on the other.8 inte’s Divine Comedy, Virgil joins Dante as a guide, and protector on a journey through the . In real life, Dante, as a proto-Renaissance, humanist, had turned to Virgil’s writings in if inspiration and a model for his own. As Virgil n of help to Dante, Bishop’s father was of t assistance to her on many levels. Consequently, her mother’s translation of Dante’s masterpiece, dedicated the painting to her father. It was scaled over the fireplace mantle of her parents’ house e Plains, New York, where they lived from the his retirement as a teacher of Greek and Latin death.’ ving several years’ study at the Art Students completely financed by her father’s wealthy ames Bishop Ford, Bishop settled into a studio: at 9 West Fourteenth Street a year or so before k Market crash. There she stayed until her : in 1934, when she moved her studio to 857 y, catercomer from the northwest end of Union By that time, with encouragement from her mds Reginald Marsh and the painter-critic Guy Bois, she had made a good start in overcoming d, rather bulbous figural forms learned from emic instructor, Kenneth Hayes Miller.11 she attributed her disciplined techniques and habits to him, while possibly looking to the tyle of Edward Laning as well (Cat. no. 29 ), her and etchings of this period foreshadow a style advanced by Dante and Xlrgil in Union Vithout adopting a Robert Henri, “life over art” ■ity once practiced by John Sloan and George finished figures, while precisely contoured, do slight painterly quality inherited from prepara­ lies (Cat. nos. 16, 17, and 18). onic display of highly prosperous-looking n what had become a gathering place of depresken workers may have been aimed at the arents, a kind of compensation in view of their to achieve the upper-middle-class status they common dilemma of secondary teachers and Historically, such a fantasy of economic 1 harks back to an earlier phase in the life of quare. g the second half of the nineteenth century, the quare district, especially Fourteenth Street, id as New York’s center of fashionable entertaind shopping, catering to, among others, the of mansions around the square. Built in 1854 4- J . . M- * ■ iJ 15 Isabel Bishop Union Square Looking East, n.d. graphite, 6‘/r * 9'h Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University Gift ofJudge Herbert W. Salus 16 Isabel Bishop Union Square Looking Edit, Study for Virgil and Dante, c. 1927 graphite, 4 ' yti Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 7 7 �/; .... on the south side of East Fourteenth, the Academy of Music hosted opera companies from abroad while plays were performed on the opposite side of the street at the living Place Theater and Tony Pastor’s theater. Tiffany s jewelry store and Brentano’s bookstore were well established on Union Square West by the Seventies; and the original Hearn s, Macy s, and 13. Allman and Company soon followed nearby as the city’s most elegant department stores. In keeping with the rapid growth cycle of an American urban economy, the heyday' was over by the turn of the century. Commercial buildings replaced the wealthy residences; most of the great stores had moved further uptown; and FourteenthStreet theater declined to vaudeville, then to burlesque, and finally to striptease. The predominance of garment­ industry sweatshops among the growing number of small manufacturers put a finishing touch on the general deterioration of the area as a residential neighborhood.12 Construction of new apartment buildings to the south, in what is now called the East Village, helped to revive the growth of retail businesses around Fourteenth Street and Broadway during the twenties. Hearn’s, still in its original location, led the way by expanding toward Fifth Avenue. Then the giant discount stores, Ohrbach’s and S. Klein’s, specializing in women’s wear and accesso­ ries, opened. In addition, a half-dozen banks, the Guardian Life Insurance Company, the Consolidated Edison Company, and several other major office buildings were erected by the end of the short-lived, post-World War I boom.13 The Crash of 1929 halted the progress. This was visible until the mid-1930s on Union Square itself. From 1928 until 1936, a major subway construction project, designed to unite Union Square Station on the Broad­ way line with the Fourteenth Street line, dragged on. It was necessary to raise the square some five feet or more and build a retaining wall around it in place of a nineteenth-century wrought-iron fence. With complete relandscaping, it seemed to take forever. Henry Kirke Brown’s equestrian statue of George Washington, completed in 1856, was moved from its original location at the intersection of Fourteenth Street and Fourth Avenue to face downtown on the exact center of the south end of the square, while his Lincoln statue of 1868 was taken from its traffic-ridden spot at Fourteenth and Broadway and relocated toward the north end of the square. Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi’s Lafayette statue, the first to be shifted from one place to another, was placed on the east side of the square looking across at S. Klein’s annex As indicated by the excavated area around Adolf von ^hTftHn Mothcrandr Children Foun,ain’ 1881. shown of^he /4/6°<;/Pai,ncn;g’ Du™g ,be ^nsion of the 14 h Street Subway Station (not in exhibition), Bishop lived through the changes, large and small However She bore little witness to them, drawing much £ “ ’eC' I*3*1" ,r°m F°Urteenth 8treet- In On th Street (Fourteenth Street), 1931 (Cat. no. 13), two aggressive 8 women dressed in white stride forward. she , shoulder, through a sidewalk group of , ing men.1* 1 he men of On the Street, in o >• five most prominent male figures opposite . Dante and Virgil in Union Square, are doubt ■ ing class, probably unemployed Their sullen discontent is as close as Bishop ever . . acknowledging the local gatherings that 1 ac increased in the form of unemployment d r , political rallies and protests against polic. brut Labor unions and the newly formed Comma'; U.S.A, shared May Day around and finally or. ■ of the square throughout the Depression. Though not an active participant in any <.t . events, Bishop could not have avoided being a* u~ them, especially after moving her studio tn )'U< th: marchers coming down Broadway and convergi-g at Union Square, the noise, the music, the chants and speeches. All of these she relished as a mam cc arse cf the neighborhood’s basic menu: I imagine I listened to the Third Internationa! ;rax morning until night. I watched the parade floats and heard the shouts to free Tom Mooney. My world i through my window. I look out of my window ar. • I fee! I’ve eaten/5 Individual body language rather than rhetoric, physical mobility rather than political movements and their ideologies, preoccupied Bishop from her years of life-drawing to the “walking” pictures toward the end of her career. “Earthy” female nudes in at nor poses or paired, young working women from the surrounding offices, attentive to each other's talk, represent her most intimate art.1* The majority of her men, Union Square idlers, “bums” she called them, appealed to her artist’s eye as a ragged fringe. So her sketch-to-painting responses to them, in works such as The Club (Cat. no. 4), were physically empathic rather than politically sympathetic. People have said to me “You must have been very socially conscious then because of the depression,” but I did not see it that way. I felt then, and still feel, that the* are aliens by temperament. I don’t say their economic disadvantages haven’t something to do with their condition but essentially they are persons who are eccentric. They are really hedonists. I got to know them as I had a series of them come up here. They would bring each other and they would take anything they could las their hands on.17 Close up and quiet, without intruding in detail upon the individual portrayed. Bishop approached men and women in essentially the same way. Though very similar in technique to Honore Daumier’s Th.rd Clan Carnap, c. 1862, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. her painting of bunched-up, coarsely clothed men at the base of the Washington equestrian statue in The Club1935 (Cat. no. 4) was not meant to expose a critical 26 Peter Hopkins Riot ar Union Sqiuy. Mi-.-t. .’930.1947 oil on canvas, 37 » 4S Collection of Museum of the City of New York Gift of the Artist Photograph courtesy Museum of the Ccv of Ne 9 �.. de forward, shoulder-to; side" ..Ik group of shabby, convershe men of Ctn Street, in contrast to the eminent male figures opposite the poets in rn;.7 in Union Square, are doubtlessly workobably unemployed. Their appearance of item is as close as Bishop ever came to ng the local gatherings that had recently the form of unemployment demonstrations, ies and protests against police brutality, is and the newly formed Communist Party d May Day around and finally on the park : throughout the Depression. ot an active participant in any of these >p could not have avoided being aware of ally after moving her studio in 1934: the tning down Broadway and converging at e, the noise, the music, the chants and of these she relished as a main course of hood’s basic menu: listened to the Third International from itil night I watched the parade floats and bouts to free Tom Mooney. My world is ■f window. I look out of my window and I feel body language rather than rhetoric, bilit}' rather than political movements and jes, preoccupied Bishop from her student drawing to the “walking" pictures toward er career. “Earthy” female nudes in action •ed, voung working women from the offices, attentive to each other’s talk, ■ most intimate art.16 The majority of her Square idlers, “bums" she called them, her artist’s eye as a ragged fringe. So her nting responses to them, in works such as at. no. 4), were physically empathic rather illy sympathetic. e said to me “You must have been very socially hen because of the depression,” but I did not vay. I felt then, and still feel, that these are unperamenL I don’t say their economic ;es haven’t something to do with their sut essentially they are persons who are They are really hedonists. I got to know them cries of them come up here. The;.' would bring and they would take anything they could lay i on." and quiet, without intruding in detail upon al portrayed, Bishop approached men and ssentially the same way. Though very similar : to Honore Daumier’s Third Class Carriage, he Metropolitan Museum of Art, her bunched-up, coarsely clothed men at the Washington equestrian statue in The Club, 10. 4) was not meant to expose a critical 26 Peter Hopkins Riot at Union Square, March 6, 1930, 1947 oil on canvas, 37 r 43 Collection of Museum of the City of New York Gift of the Artist Photograph courtesy Museum of the City of New York 9 �condition as an appeal to reform it.- Whatever rhe human dilemma might be, social, psychological, or (as is most likely) a combination of the two, the figures impart an aura of calm. A melancholy of endurance contrasts considerably to the obtrusive melodrama of Albert Halper’s descriptions of the raucous masses in is 1933 novel Union Square. With the first crack of daylight the parade of the Fourteenth Street beggars began. There were legless fellows; blind men who held onto small, faithful dogs; deformed, cleanly shaven fellows who wore army shirts and overseas hats to give a good “ex-service" effect ... The noise was terrific, everything was bedlam. Folks crossed the street against the traffic and were shouted at by our vigilant police. Everywhere you turned a vender shoved an object under your nose, yelling, screaming, urging you to buy.” Such raucous conditions find a substantial degree of confirmation in early 1930s works by Bishop’s colleague Reginald Marsh. Painted a year after Halper’s novel. Marsh’s In Fourteenth Street (not in exhibition) includes at least fivo pathetically handicapped men, one in the lower right-hand comer and the other in the left middleground. The latter, legless on the curb, seems to be screaming rather than merely begging for change, the crowd oblivious to his pleas. The other leans heavily on crutches, face somber, clothes disheveled in shocking contrast to the mannequin-like, blonde glamour girl nearest to him.20 While not as overtly critical in his imagery as Marsh, Raphael Soyer also sympathized with the down-and-out of Union Square and the Fourteenth Street area. The heads of three pathetic men dominate the lower right corner of the painting, In the City Park, 1934 (Cat. no. 43). The central man, a self-portrait of the artist wearing a cap, stares downward woefully. In front of him, a friend or stranger sleeps with his mouth open. Head fallen back, he cushions it with his left hand whose arm rests heavily on a twine-wrapped bundle. The third man, also sleeping or in a trance, leans forward with his jawsunk in a hand as thick-fingered as that of the fore­ ground. In the middleground, a newsboy, two women, and a man in shirtsleeves circle and turn toward the equestrian statue of Washington retreating on its high pedestal in the direction of Fourteenth Street buildings Several more men sit idly in the background.2' Bishop’s intolerance for such crisis content in Pontings biased her description of an exhibition of over 500 entries she judged in the mid-thirties. Highly skeptical of their subject matter, she wrote: “You'd think bus great country- was entirely composed of these little tmy [rrc] people living in slums.’22 C&Atc?atCdjj\the beSt °‘ her “bum” P‘ctures> upon Sim' {P™ly me"tioned), she looked Xh a uadh- T c lnhlbitints of Vni™ S^are esptially h d ?h ?r the Pitturc«Iue- Th< men y he aesthetic appeal of any crusty, highly textured forms. They could be rendered m . or pigment as “colorful.’’ as abstraction.—with . ...... mal concern for their physical, psydwlog ci; , condition: I’ve been interested in bums and s<> cn-■ r . interested because I could get then-,. They v- ?r, . , and they were very beautiful to dra--. were victims exactly, but that their lr.es were matter of choice.1* . Viewing poverty as picturesque prevailed :r. Futopean painting from the Early Renaissance the three shabby shepherds in Hugo van der Goes’ Portman Altarpiece tumble into the nativ v scene as a beautiful arabesque of down-to-earth reality. Religious iconography aside, a detached aesthetic attitude toward the poor continued to be assumed by many leading artists as diverse as Dtlrer, Hals, Rembrandt. Murillo, and Manet. In New York, Bishop’s predecessors in Henri’s circle of urban realists, espe< i illy George Luks, maintained a similar detachment in their attraction to the lower Manhattan poor, an aesthetic class conscious ness with little apparent intention of exposing social |||, The working people provided them a subject matter with an unspoiled, rough “edge,” as Luks termed it. Sounding essentially like Bishop in his attitude toward poverty, Luks considered the slums from an optimistic point of view characteristic ol the Progressive period, that is, as a refuge for the momentarily poor It is not in human nature to repose, passive and resistless, on the bottom. The result is that all hands go to work to puli themselves up out of their rut of poverty, and the dominant message of rhe slums becomes “We Strive." There are many other notes tn the song that the slums are singing, but that one expresses the prevailing spirit of it all. And that spirit bears fruition, too. The people do overcome their poverty and pass on into other spheres ” That a bum’s life was “largely a matter of choice" to Bishop clearly reflected a basic belief advanced by the Progressive period. Accordingly, poverty, at least for most white Americans, need only be a temporary condition. As social historian Robert Bremner con­ cluded in From the Depth.-: "In normal times Americans were accustomed to think of unemployment as exclu­ sively the problem of the inefficient and indolent. ~ In short, class mobility resulted from ambition and personal effort in a society of ostensible equal opportu­ nity. To be prosperous was a virtue, a sign of puritanical blessedness while poverty was a punishment for 'he deadly sin of sloth. Bishop's comments the subject simply repeats an American adage that a middle-class existence awat'-s _ anyone who strives for it "It’s something that s true or America. The people I paint are dearly defined as a- cj«But they i-e not be and to that class. There s tic tion to what they may do and no telling where they ■ *■ 18 Isabel Bishop Virgiland Dante in Un :r; : graphite, 6- i ■ 1Courtesy of DC Moore G; Photograph by Protessiona wind up.’ ’ 10 11 �>- . " could be rendered in graphite, ink, r;ent as "colorful,” as abstractions—with a minincem for their physical, psychological, or social on: ?een interested in bums and so on for years. I was ested because I could get them. They were available, hey were very beautiful to draw.... I didn’t feel they victims exactly, but that their lives were largely a :r of choice.23 i. ing poverty as picturesque prevailed in European g from the Early Renaissance. As early as 1476, :e shabby shepherds in Hugo van der Goes’ *i Altarpiece tumble into the nativity scene as a jl arabesque of down-to-earth reality. Religious aphy aside, a detached aesthetic attitude toward r continued to be assumed by many leading s diverse as DQrer, Hals, Rembrandt, Murillo, net. In New York, Bishop’s predecessors in circle of urban realists, especially George Luks, ned a similar detachment in their attraction to er Manhattan poor, an aesthetic class consciousfa little apparent intention of exposing social ills, rking people provided them a subject matter with oiled, rough “edge,” as Luks termed it. Sounding Uy like Bishop in his attitude toward poverty, nsidered the slums from an optimistic point of iracteristic of the Progressive period, that is, as a ar the momentarily poor: □t in human nature to repose, passive and resistless, : bottom. The result is that all hands go to work to temselves up out of their rut of poverty, and the lant message of the slums becomes “We Strive.” are many other notes in the song that the slums are g, but that one expresses the prevailing spirit of it id that spirit bears fruition, too. The people do >me their poverty and pass on into other spheres?4 a bum’s life was “largely a matter of choice” to dearly reflected a basic belief advanced by the ive period. Accordingly, poverty, at least for rite Americans, need only be a temporary n. As social historian Robert Bremner conn From the Depths-. “In normal times Americans ustomed to think of unemployment as exclue problem of the inefficient and indolent.”25 In ass mobility resulted from ambition and effort in a society of ostensible equal opportube prosperous was a virtue, a sign of puritanical ess while poverty was a punishment for the in of sloth. p s comments on the subject simply repeated an n adage that a middle-class existence awaits A'ho strives for it: “It’s something that’s true of . The people I paint are clearly defined as a class, are not bound to that class. There’s no limitariiat they may do and no telling where they may 18 Isabel Bishop Virgil and Dante in Union Square-3 Studies, 1932 graphite, f>'/i * 3'A Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 11 �J If individuals of the working poor wanted to move, Bishop believed they could "in a social sense. I was after mobility and I felt about these class-marked people that they were mobile in life, and that some of them did move. I’ve kept track dunng many years and some have moved in life. Others, of course, haven t, but an emphasis on this possibility seems to me a characteris­ tic of American life.27 While possible improvement of one’s class status might be read into Bishop’s paintings of young working women, Dame Fortune, or at least her rewards of advantageous choice in a mobile society, is allegorized in only one major work: Dante and Virgil in Union Square (Cat. no. 6). The Calvinist-Puritan doctrine that an outward show of inward grace awaits those predes­ tined few who profitably tend their earthly gardens equates with the well clad, obviously prosperous people who fill the lower third of the composition. All the women wear cloche hats, and most of them sport furcollared coats or separate fur pieces. Their outfits are in the style of the day, their skirts are fashionably knee­ length. They carry clutch purses and some packages. Except for the woman on the far right who seems to enjoy her conversation with a smiling male companion to the point of laughing out loud, the faces remain relatively expressionless. The fewer men are dressed in two- and three-piece suits, bow ties, neckties, and mostly fedora-type hats. While they engage in the same leisurely coming and going as the women, two of them, who stand to the right of center, appear to be discussing the strange looking pair in front of them. With the introduction of Dante and Virgil as supplementary subject matter, any literal “genre" meaning in the painting is replaced by'an obtuse, allegorical one. As critic Craig Owens, in reference to Benedetto Croce’s theory of allegory, explains: “Conceived as something added or superadded to the work after the fact, allegory will consequently be detachable from it... The allegorical supplement is not only an addition, but also a replacement. It takes the place of an earlier meaning, which is thereby either effaced or obscured.”28 Not only the foremost figures of Dante and Virgil SX ^l'Xh SPM,,”S ' outfit, a working" £ mfn J 7 ” a short red brown, his threewXrh ln dark baggy trousers hanging ove/l’ 8‘ng 3nd hlS his shoes. Unlike the other men ln their full-brim hats, he -- wears a cap, a sign of his 12 lower status. He too walks away from u> :■ direction converging with that of the wcr. would meet at a crowded point in front background structure: a weakly supper awning ambiguously located in front ot Square Savings Bank building. Ongiruliv ' . . relatively solid, freestanding, arched emr. no. 18), this final version casts a dark ova! against which three other capped heads apy.-ji ;r, -j,cjr triangular relationship, the two outcast figure .rjj vague destination serve as a subtle reminder h.. Un on Square is not easy street. Along with this token of impoverishment, the peculiar presence of Dante and Virgil causes Bishop’s painting to become something more (or less) than a “rose-tinted” view of an affluent shopping-center extension of Fourteenth Street. The meaning of this as a social statement must stem in part from her often repeated childhood memory of living on a borderline between prosperity and poverty. This region-Union Square-interests me in a way that 1 don't understand myself. I think it has to do with a deep association from the time of my childhood in Detroit, and there was a kind of appetite that I developed for the other direction, toward the slum region. It seemed warmer to me. It seemed more human, and 1 liked ii better, and yet I know that my family’s feeling was that we were only one street from the good section, they wished to associate themselves with the good section. There was conflict. I feel that may be part of the reason for my loving this Union Square region, which is a rather shabby business region of New York.1’ On the one hand. Bishop was attracted to Union Square and its neighborhood for the same reasons she had been attracted to the poor neighborhood back home in Detroit: its human warmth. On the other, she eased her conflict with her parents’ class-conscious envy by converting the square momentarily into a “good section" of affluence. This accommodation, combined with her belief in the American “boot-straps" myth of social mobility, lends a clue as to what aspect of the Divine Comedy Dante and Virgil’s New York visit most convincingly alludes and how this reference expresses her basic reaction to the worst years of the Depression. Dante, it must be remembered, takes the reader on a progressive tour of hell and purgatory with Virgil as his guide. Hell, or infemo, is divided into nine stages, each t different punishment befitting an earthly sin. The first stage, limbo, indefinitely confines the souls of the unbaptized and virtuous heathens. In contrast to Delacroix’s famo us painting. The Barque of Dante and Virgil Crossing the River Styx, 1822. based on an episode from Canto VIII of the Inferno.. Bishop’s rather benign scene of orderly people, snugly deposited on Union , Square, represents none of the specific stages of heli. She obviously did not intend to illustrate an) e1,c“ punishment and left possible association with Enuo. 2 Isabel Bishop At the .Voon Hour, c. 1932 tempera and pencil on composition board, 2: Collection of Museum of Fine Aits, Spnngfx James Philip Gray Collection Photograph courtesy Museum of Fine Arts 13 �T.s away from us in an oblique ■ith that of the woman. They led point in front of a peculiar a weakly supported, rounded seated in front of the Union uilding. Originally sketched as a nding, arched entranceway (Cat. on casts a dark oval shadow her capped heads appear. In their , the two outcast figures and their i as a subtle reminder that Union :n of impoverishment, the ante and Virgil causes Bishop’s mething more (or less) than a n affluent shopping-center h Street. The meaning of this as a stem in part from her oftenanory of living on a borderline 1 poverty. [uare-interests me in a way that I elf. I think it has to do with a deep ime of my childhood in Detroit, >f appetite that I developed for the d the slum region. It seemed ted more human, and I liked it that my family’s feeling was that ;t from the good section, they emselves with the good section, eel that may be part of the reason ion Square region, which is a rather I of New York.30 ishop was attracted to Union irhood for the same reasons she the poor neighborhood back home warmth. On the other, she eased >arents’ class-conscious envy by momentarily into a "good This accommodation, combined American “boot-straps” myth of a clue as to what aspect of the and Virgil’s New York visit most nd how this reference expresses he worst years of the Depression, tmembered, takes the reader on a II and purgatory with Virgil as his >, is divided into nine stages, each a befitting an earthly sin. The first :ely confines the souls of the ms heathens. In contrast to tinting, The Barque of Dante and r Styx, 1822, based on an episode ae Inferno, Bishop’s rather benign le, snugly deposited on Union ae of the specific stages of Dante’s d not intend to illustrate any given possible association with limbo, 2 Babel Bishop At the Noon Hour, c. 1932 tempera and pencil on composition board, 25 x 1 8'/h Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts James Philip Gray Collection Photograph courtesy Museum of Fine Arts 13 �hell or purgatory open to interpretation. In a character­ istically understated manner, she claims only to ha enlisted Dante and his ancient guide to wrtness a multi­ plicity of souls.”3' She does not say they were lost or doomed and, in fact, seems to stress the setting rather than its occupants. In reading a literal translation of Dante, perhaps her mother’s, she discovered that his attachments to to descriptive passages matched her warm attachments the physical nature of Union Square. Dante’s Inferno, in this down-to-earth “unpoetical” translation, has to me a marvelous homely quality, almost a “genre” feeling in its reference to the definite, particular and concrete features of objects. They are thus given an every day character even in the midst of the fantastic underworld! This “genre" aspect connected in my mind with my feeling for Union Square, which I felt to be homely, ugly, and in that quality, lovable (instead of fearful) as the setting for hordes of human beings.12 Bishop’s reading of the Inferno ironically did not dwell on terror but on pleasant references. These related to her positive feelings for Union Square inversely conditioned by her memories of the marginal residential district in Detroit. In conformity with her parents’ preference for the well-to-do a block away, the “multiplicity of souls" is hardly a “genre” subject of working-class people in the traditional art-historical sense of the word. With two definite exceptions, this crowd was enlisted from the hordes of middle-class shoppers on Fourteenth Street. Furthermore, from their pant-legged appearance in the original pencil studies, even Dante and Virgil evolved from immediate pedestrian beginnings (Cat. no. 18). In the final preparatory drawing (Cat. no. 17) they face the east side of the square; and in the painting, the sun is to their backs, shining from the northwestern sky over their left shoulders. This would make the time of day mid-to-late afternoon, as indicated by the lengthening shadows. In contrast to the darkened foreground of Dante and Virgil and the cloud-filled, background sky, three clusters of buildings absorb the sunlight and shine forth. As in the early fourteenth-century Peaceful City from Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco Allegoy of Good Government in the Sala della Pace of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, the radiant city of pristine surfaces reflects a civic ideal of prosperity, an ideologically blessed system, which in the United States promises upward mobility, his context, among others, needs to be considered in mterpretmg the meaning of Bishop’s Dante and Virgil in Union Square vis-i-vis the Divine Comedy. * The rush-hour velocity of rapid descent into what S“,r; f“"of 14 4 ™.T‘LX8„k,n facade is topped by three stacked balls. If onl , these could be read as attributes of Saint Nldvf • ' Myra, the patron saint of travelers as well a. ?, ‘. type for Santa Claus, a transfiguration m 1 ?!I , ' hoped for benefit and well-being.33 While praising the execution and “poetic . ■ ibi •, of Bishop’s early major painting as superior to an paintings by either Kenneth Hayes Miller or R;-Hnald Marsh, Helen Yglesias flirted with an interpretation of its Union Square as a contemporary hell- If the multiplicity of human souls on the square ate the sinners in a circle of hell, then hell is the ordinariness of daily living and tMhe “sinners” face their “lives of desperation” with a measure of patience, courage and dignity that overlays the scene with a strange calm.3* Lacking the dynamic sublimity or agonizing disrup­ tions of a convincing hell h la Delacroix, the final version of the painting, with its crowded quietude, contrasts with Bishop’s earliest painting bearing the name of the place. In Union Square During the Expansion of the 14th Street Subway Station, 1930 (not in exhibition), two men work around Von Donndorfs fountain of motherly love waist deep in dirt and debris, similar to the fifth stage of Dante’s hell where the wrathful sink into a mire. In a setting dark and barren, a wagon, retaining wall, some sheds, and a few more vaguely discernible figures blend into the bottom stories of tall, dark buildings receding down a side street. Foreboding, these provide no sense of security, not even a fire escape. Only the dusky golden sky and the isolated sculpture of a mother with her children offers relief in an otherwise desolate atmosphere. In the second and third small pencil sketches (Cat. no. 18) preliminary to the painting of Dante and Virgil in Union Square, the possible image of a crowd being drawn into a subway entrance as if siphoned into a nether­ world, might be related to the second stage of hell in which the souls of carnal sinners are continuously blown around by stormy winds. The subway train, in its dark subterranean tunnels, moves people here and there, day in, day out. However, as discussed earlier, Bishop abandoned the frenzy of these sketches in the final painting and settled on a quiescent arrangement of clearly delineated figures against a background of bright rectangular forms. Karl Lunde, in his brief 1975 monograph on Bishop, while intending to focus on the content of her work, avoided concrete conclusions concerning any of its particulars. He did, however, in asking the question , “What are Dante and Virgil doing on Union Square; hypothesize that a central theme of limbo began with their appearance before the staid city crowd and contin ued through several subsequent paintings. Who are the Strap Hangers being hurtled through the , underground? And what is the meaning of the cathe ra. complexity of the station shown in Under Union Sqaan- I 12 Isabel Bishop Noon Hour, 1935 etching, 7*5 Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes Univ Sordom/Myers Acquisition Fund Purchase Photograph by Professional Photographic Servii 15 �three stacked balls. If only golden, 1 as attributes of Saint Nicholas of aint of travelers as well as the proto­ ns, a transfiguration in keeping with ind well-being.33 he execution and “poetic ambiguity” lajor painting as superior to any Kenneth Hayes Miller or Reginald sias flirted with an interpretation of s a contemporary hell: of human souls on the square are the of hell, then hell is the ordinariness of the “sinners” face their “lives of a measure of patience, courage and ys the scene with a strange calm.'* tmic sublimity’ or agonizing disrupng hell a la Delacroix, the final ting, with its crowded quietude, op’s earliest painting bearing the In Union Square During tie Expansion 'raay Station, 1930 (not in exhibition), jnd Von Donndorfs fountain of t deep in din and debris, similar to ante’s hell where the wrathful sink tting dark and barren, a wagon, e sheds, and a few more vaguely alend into the bottom stories of tall, ding down a side street. Foreboding, nse of security, not even a fire escape, den sky and the isolated sculpture of children offers relief in an otherwise d third small pend! sketches (Cat. no. the painting of Dante and Virgil in ossible image of a crowd being drawn tnce as if siphoned into a netherated to the second stage of hell in carnal sinners are continuously tormy winds. The subway train, in its tunnels, moves people here and there, rwever, as discussed earlier, Bishop izj’ of these sketches in the final 1 on a quiescent arrangement of igures against a background of bright is brief 1975 monograph on Bishop, focus on the content of her work, onclusions concerning any of its , however, in asking rhe question nd Virgil doing on Union Square?” central theme of limbo began with efore the staid city crowd and continil subsequent paintings. Hangers being hurtled through the i what is the meaning of the cathedral station shown in Under Union Square"'. 12 Isabel Bishop Noon Hour, 1935 etching, 7*5 Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University Sordoni/Myers Acquisition Fund Purchase Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 15 �,<W <■' jnv rsc»tar .0^ -"“■-KJ-'' f her 1 ' and no recr0 Ru?h '^the I"1’1”. ^fsh.n" r tin,rrl front ‘ and menj" £ and , return^ iS1* J referenv. here observed- ,WD> “"Sy «««■•* ‘ £S^^,iOTO s^.- m-ny M formal^ a ” action. That thts wa> existence, however, is quest' display of upward social n final composition evolved Square extended indefinite; figures to enter and exit at interpretation, this openin oriented composition coir an unfixed state of class d she completed this major mic animation of her coll be equated metaphorically advancement. This is cons retrospective references to I was conscious of their be fixed If I succeeded m ma senns°° J ‘hat Aey could t ense, this opened up a sui m Ude the ability of J Projectlhro. Ph°tenrU1 thj L'ni°n Square ^_ninetecn ' b0>’ and a b2P7tatle’ « SUrnrned up rh ^Unde, !n Raphael Soyer In the City Park, 1934 oil on canvas, 37% x 39% Private Collection Piiotograph by Michael Thomas hui ini °vemcnt,lnh7nv^on source The r ‘tan<e a/nr>ual ‘r"? >u B‘Shc, �Why is the painting so calm and still? Where are these people? They are in Union Square, in the subway, in life— and they are in limbo?5 He went so far as to apply his hypothesis to the “walking" paintings of the sixties and seventies in which “the figures are doing what the title denotes, but they are also transparent wraiths in a limbo where paths cross and recross and no one ever touches or meets anyone else.””' Ruth Weisberg, in her 1985 article on Isabel Bishop, reiterated the limbo interpretation of Dante and Virgil in Union Square. From its criss-cross ambling of women and men in front of shining high buildings Bishop returned "again and again to the limbo of the modem city and its shitting patterns of purposeful walkers.”37 In reference to the 1957-1958 Suhray Seme (not tn exhibi­ tion) Weisberg observed: "The overall transparency and fleeting, ghostly presence of people remind us again of Dante and his evocation of souls who wander timelessly in limbo."53 The evenly placed figures of Dante and Virgil in Union Square mark a point in her early career at which Bishop formalized a rather mechanical pattern of human inter­ action. That this was meant to express a limbo-like existence, however, is questionable in view of their sartorial display of upward social mobility. Furthermore, as its final composition evolved, Dante and Virgil in Union Square extended indefinitely on both sides, allowing figures to enter and exit at will. Very significant to our interpretation, this opening out of an otherwise centeroriented composition complements Bishop’s fixation on an unfixed state of class distinction. And, by the time she completed this major work the increasingly rhyth­ mic animation of her collective figures allowed itself to be equated metaphorically with self-assertive social advancement. This is consistently verified in her retrospective references to the growth of her figural style: I was conscious of their being class-marked, but not classfixed. If I succeeded in making them seem to the onlooker that they could rum and move in a physical sense, this opened up a subjective potential which could include the mobility of content.-' It was this potential that Bishop apparently wished to project through nineteen stage-front women in her 1932 Union Square spectacle, accompanied by seven men, a boy, and a baby. Lunde, in spite of his limbo contention, summed up this early interest in social mobility accurately when he wrote The single aspect of nature that most interests her is humankind in the environment of Union Square. People in movement, in transition, flux and change are the source of what she paints?' The central significance of mobility and change to a decade that saw an annual average of five million Americans move across state lines in search of economic betterment underlies Bishop’s maneuvering of Brown's equestrian George Washington. She moved the bronze monument from the south end of the square, reversed its direction, and placed it in the exact center of the composition, the horse's hindquarters and tail coincid­ ing with the middle contour of Dante and Virgil (Cat. no. 17). So relocated, it helps to fasten together the two most energetic zones of the painting: that of the milling people and that of the erratic tops of tall buildings. Both horizontal bands signify dynamic change, while the equestrian Washington provides a constant. As a historic icon, highlighted by the 1932 bicentennial of his birth, the grand commander of loosely organized colonial forces blesses the mass of twentieth-century people below with an outstretched hand, summoning them to repose as he did his motley troops. By the same token, he now gestures toward what had become the “ladies mile,” the fashionable Broadway shopping area above Union Square. For the immediate future prosperity assumed an uptown direction. Thus, far from seeing Union Square as a chaotic hell-like environment, Bishop took compositional and iconographic control of it To the left of center, exactly halfway between the George Washington and the mysterious, ill-defined awning, Bishop placed another statue on a high pedestal. In the final, squared-off pencil drawing (Cat. no. 17), the pedestal of the second statue closely resembles that of Bartholdi’s Lafayette (Cat. no. 14) which, in its original location, faced the equestrian Washington offering his sword of assistance. The elongated figure, the sketchiest detail of the drawing, however, indicates none of the swirling, baroque contrapposto of Bartholdi’s animated Lafayette. In the painting, the pedestal is clearly that of Brown’s Lincoln and while the figure remains obscure, its back turned to the observer, it stands straight and still in a Lincolnesque manner with an illuminated contour following the lines and proportions of the sculpture. If it is indeed the nation’s redeemer, his proximity to the father of the country would relate to Bishop’s basic theme of promise and fulfillment. Her major painting symbolizes a positive social transition, the progressive presumption of expansive economic upgrading. As described by John Hart, the biographer of novelist Albert Halper, Union Square, “in its honest and genuine concern for betterment, had always been American to the core ... the past forever being overthrown; the future forever being coaxed into existence. It is the vortex of change; it is America in transition.”41 Betterment becomes the allegorical theme of the painting as the modest, round-shouldered woman in a shawl and the brown-clad worker follow other receding figures toward the shadowy background entranceway detached from the front of a bank. In provocative contrast, two pairs of fashionably dressed, upper-class women flank him and step assertively into the fore­ ground. From Bishop's faith in an inevitable state of well-being, the six figures signal the beginning and end �of upward mobility. The same may be said of a left-toright progression of back-turning female figures, each bearing to the right. It starts with a woman carrying a child close behind the long-skirted one. Her pose is repeated by a figure placed in the middle of two curving lines, which appear to be streetcar tracks, that stop inexplicitly at the left toes of two flanking women. This third figure, in sketchy white apparel, seems in a state of transformation from her counterpart to the far left. The ultimate good life manifests itself in a fourth figure to the tar right which gravitates toward the sunny side of the street that opens up the distant buildings. She is dressed in a beautiful green coat and white fur shoulder piece. Her large-crowned yellow hat functions as the dot of an exclamation mark created by the bright vertical of the most radiant building facade in the block. Bishop expressed her confidence in progressive social mobility in the overall tonality of her painting. Its golden haze radiates optimism in distinction to the shadowy depths reached by the Depression in 1932, when forty percent of the work force was unemployed and the income of corporations had fallen from eleven billion dollars to two since late 1929.42 In this regard, at least one passage in Dante’s Purgatorio compares con­ vincingly with Bishop’s Dante and Virgil in Union Square. While hell knows no sun, it shines once again in purga­ tory and brings contentment. A stanza in Canto II reads: My master and I, and all that people around Who were with him, had faces so content, As if all else out of their thoughts were drowned.43 That Dante and Virgil on Union Square serves as a timely allusion to Dante’s Purgatorio is supported by Bishop’s basic meaning of mobility as “potential for change” and, in the progressive American sense, change for the better. Even in the midst of an economic depression, she viewed deprivation as a matter of choice and from a traditional laissez faire, liberal point of view, a matter of purgatorial expiation rooted in hope. As opposed to Lunde’s and Weisberg’s negative interpreta­ tions of Bishop’s painting as a Virgilran limbo, a theme of purgatory seems by all evidence to be more appropri­ ate to Dante and Virgil in Union Square. While limbo is an intermediate region between heaven and hell in which souls are confined and barred from entering heaven through no fault of their own, puigatory is a mohP?’^ Te Where S°U1S paUSe t0 where mobility is elevation. As stated by T. S. Eliot in his Dante. a\inditatcd in her Herbert Darwinist natural selection to economic growth. So loved by post-Civil War, American entrepreneurs. Sou, ■■ Darwinism meant that the evolution of capitalism, ki> free from state interference, could, in theory, “end only in the establishment of the greatest perfection and me':, complete happiness”45 for the very fittest of a modem society. Therein lies the original meaning of liberalism with its view of unlimited economic opportunity. The most enterprising among us rise to the top from the humblest beginnings. The acceleration of corporate consolidation in the new century had rendered this innocent version of the American dream outmoded, indeed archaic, by 1932—the Great Depression notwithstanding. Nevertheless, many still adhered to the belief-including Isabel Bishop. With faith in individualism, she would continue to look down upon failure from a conservative point of view. The marginal male members of society she witnessed on Union Square, not the system, were to blame for their own impoverishment. To her they were misfit bums who could succeed in rising above their miserable condition only through personality adjustment, not through social change. In order for Bishop’s “working girl” of the mid­ thirties to dream of becoming a well-dressed shopper, she had to behave herself on the job and wait patiently for either a rare promotion or a proposal of marriage. Self-redemption in one way or another releases the soul from purgatory to ascend toward heavenly existence. As evidenced by cautious analysis of the painting, augmented by Bishop’s guarded statements regarding its meaning, it is clear that she did not intend it to be either an inferno or a limbo. Eternal torture would hardly correspond with her attraction to bodily energy and her belief in its social equivalent: the American “bootstrap” theory that sustained self-assertion guarantees success. Curiously linked to Dante and Virgil, this American postulate allows that the painting is best interpreted as a modern purgatory. NOTES The authors thank Stanley Grand for his constructive observations. 1. Isabel Bishop, as quoted in Cindy Nemser, “Conversation with Isabel Bishop,” The Feminist Art Journal 5 (Spring 1976): 15. 2. In both her Ph.D. dissertation (“Gender, Occupation and Class in Paintings by the Fourteenth Street School, 1925 to 1940,” Stanford University, 1987, Chapter 5, “Isabel Bishop’s Deferential Office Girls,” pp. 282-322) and its rewritten and redefined book version {The “New Woman" Revised, Painting and Gender Politics on Fourteenth St’tet [Berkeley: University of California Press, 19’3], Chapter 7, “The^ Question of Difference: Isabel Bishop’s Deferential Office Girls, pp. 273-311), Ellen Wiley Todd thoroughly demonstrates that Bishop s conservative imaging of young female office workers conforms in type to demographic tables, statistical surveys, government reports, periodical studies, advice manuals, employment counselor publica­ tions, and employers’ demands. Bishop’s volunteer models reveal the deferential manners, modest clothing, make-up, and hair styles, expected ot the fledgling office girls whose “balanced behavior an proper attitude were essential to obtaining and retaining their low paying jobs. Promotion out of a stenographic pool to a secretarial position delineated their nariow road to success. Todd points out J 4 Isabel Bishop The Club. 1935 oil and tempera on canvas, 20»24 Private Collection �1g is af re r >t >f 1 I 'C. e e Darwinist natural selection to economic growth. So loved by post-Civil War, American entrepreneurs, Social Darwinism meant that the evolution of capitalism, left free from state interference, could, in theory, “end only in the establishment of the greatest perfection and most complete happiness”-15 for the very fittest of a modem society. Therein lies the original meaning of liberalism with its view of unlimited economic opportunity. The most enterprising among us rise to the top from the humblest beginnings. The acceleration of corporate consolidation in the new century had rendered this innocent version of the American dream outmoded, indeed archaic, by 1932-the Great Depression notwithstanding. Nevertheless, many still adhered to the belief-including Isabel Bishop. With faith in individualism, she would continue to look down upon failure from a conservative point of view. The marginal male members of society she witnessed on Union Square, not the system, were to blame for their own impoverishment. To her they were misfit bums who could succeed in rising above their miserable condition only through personality adjustment, not through social change. In order for Bishop’s “working girl” of the mid­ thirties to dream of becoming a well-dressed shopper, she had to behave herself on the job and wait patiently for either a rare promotion or a proposal of marriage. Self-redemption in one way or another releases the soul from purgatory to ascend toward heavenly existence. As evidenced by cautious analysis of the painting, augmented by Bishop’s guarded statements regarding its meaning, it is clear that she did not intend it to be either an inferno or a limbo. Eternal torture would hardly correspond with her attraction to bodily energy and her belief in its social equivalent: the American “bootstrap” theory that sustained self-assertion guarantees success. Curiously linked to Dante and Virgil, this American postulate allows that the painting is best interpreted as a modem purgatory. NOTES The authors thank Stanley Grand for his constructive observations. 1. Isabel Bishop, as quoted in Cindy Nemser, “Conversation with Isabel Bishop," The Feminist Art Journal 5 (Spring 1976): 15. 2. In both her Ph.D. dissertation (“Gender, Occupation and Class in Paintings by the Fourteenth Street School, 1925 to 1940,” Stanford University, 1987, Chapter 5, “Isabel Bishop’s Deferential Office Girls,’ pp. 282-322) and its rewritten and redefined book version (The Ara ll cmrn” Revised, Painting and Gender Politics on Fourteenth Street [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993], Chapter 7, “The Question of Difference Isabel Bishop’s Deferential Office Girls," pp. 2.3-311), Ellen Wiley Todd thoroughly demonstrates that Bishop’s conservative imaging of young female office workers conforms in type to demographic tables, statistical surveys, government reports, penodical studies, advice manuals, employment counselor publica­ tions, and employers’ demands. Bishop’s volunteer models reveal the e.erential manners, modest clothing, make-up, and hair styles expected of the fledgling office girls whose “balanced behavior” and Ptope* attitude were essential to obtaining and retaining their low,c'jS’7,on,ott°n out of a stenographic pool to a secretarial P -non eltneated then narrow road to success. Todd points out that 4 Isabel Bishop The Club, 1935 oil and tempera on canvas, 20 * 24 Private Collection 19 �....female tigutes man for socioeconomic g li;: .. Rizzoli, 1989]: 10)7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 10. Seemap of Union Square artists’ studio locations in Todd, “A-IrUr-r.’e,'p.9L 11. Yglesias, Isabel Bump, p- 1212 Todd, TVfl» Wiwtair.'pp. 85-86. 13. Ibid., p. 87. 14. The etching served as the basis of On the Strut (Fourteenth Stntt'i, 1932 (private collection, not in exhibition). The women in both works retain a resemblance to the shopping women of Bishop’s 1927 painting, Hum's Department Slorc-Fourleenlb Stmt Shoppers (private collection, not in exhibition), which provided prototypal female figures for Dante and Virgil in Union Square. 15. Bishop, quoted by Fred Ferretti, “Artist Losing Her Window on the World," TheNer York Times, June 24,1978, p. 21. 16. See for example Homeward, 1951, which depicts two young women straphanging on the subway. 17. Bishop, quoted by C. Nemser, “Conversation,” p. 18. 18. The same may be said of the austere mother and sleeping child in WiiMg, 1938. 19. Albert Halper, Union Square, (New York: Literary Guild, 1933): 47-48. 21 in her discussion of this painting, Ellen Wiley Todd tends toward a hell analogy in the direction of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment: “At the center of a swirling maelstrom of lost souls, attracted to the temptations of 14th Street’s sidewalk commerce, the central hawker... assumes the pose of the judging Christ.” (Todd, “Gender," p. 66). Since the pose is reversed, however, he is trans­ formed “into a deceptive figure who raises his sinister left hand instead of his right and offers seduction instead of judgment.” (Ibid., pp. 66-67). Also see Todd “New Woman,"pp. 118,209-210. In both her dissertation and her book, Todd assumes that Marsh borrowed directly from Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in creating the hawker and crowd for In Fourteenth Street. The connection actually appears rather loose. For example, the raised left hand of the awkward-looking hawker touches forefinger to thumb, creating a tight circle far re. -.cred from the open right hand of Michelangelo’s muscular ■metK-lookmg Christ. In Marsh’s Holy Name Mission, 1931 (private •c”-'7»n. not in exhtbition), hungry men line up in the dark, their twe'Cfo ” Par7■"H>’ i."UminJ "dandbydcbris 'he l,ghtlit,crframthe insidc e Wo h f strc«s. His i, • ' 7^: M" e. <U Io,, of, JJ. Jnd s["d> 'd!'in?’ ln ',!,ns'W0 8 P0PUlj,10n the dX^Kt m ?::^934 ,no',n "bibi'io"). »«<« of ***» 20 stares at the viewer from beneath wrinkled brow. Next to him.m very center, a much younger man grasps his left hand in his lap.: lips parted and eyes wide open as if dumbstruck by his situation T .. third man in front holds onto a pair of crutches as he leans back an attempt to sleep. The others, to the rear, while slightly varied V their expressions, share a mood of despondency. Except for the partially highlighted faces, the painting is appropriately dark. 22. L. M. Starr, “Interview with Isabel Bishop,” The Oral Hi Research Office, Columbia University, 1956, Part 2, No. 16. 23. Bishop, quoted from an interview, March 18-19, 1974, with Sheldon Reich (Reich, Isabel Bisbop [Tucson: University of Arizona Museum of Art, 1974]: 25. 24. Luks, quoted by L. Baury, “The Message of Proletaire,” Bookman 34 (December 1911): 402. 25. Robert H. Bremner, From the Depths: The Disccroeiy oj P : :riy in the United States (New York: New York University Press, 1956): 14. 26. Bishop, quoted by Adelaide Kerr (“babel Bishop Paints Four Pictures a Year," Toledo Times, May 2, 1943). 27. Bishop, quoted from an interview, March 18-19, 1974, with Sheldon Reich (Isabel Bishop, p. 24). In general reference to Bishop’s depictions of “working girls,” the docent handout notes for Dante and Virgil tn Union Square at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, reiterates the consensus: “She has also said that what she was trying to capture in her models was ‘mobility,’ not necessarily potential movement, but rather social mobility, the possibility that these people could do anything they wanted." 28. Craig Owens, “The Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of Postmodernism,” October 12 (Spring 1980): 84. 29. This figure does not appear in the final, squared-off drawing of Dante and Virgil in Union Square but was added in the painting. 30. Bishop, quoted in Starr, “Interview," Part 2, No. 65. 31. Bishop, quoted in Yglesias, Isabel Bishop, p. 16. The full statement is: “I used Union Square as a subject, crowds, people, the multiplicity of souls. I was reading Dante then, in a very literal translation. It struck me as a good story. It was the idea of the multiplicity of souls that was enormously important to me." 32. Bishop, quoted \n American Painting and Sculpture (Wilm­ ington: Delaware Art Museum, 1975): 122. 33. George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols tn Christian Ari (New York: Oxford University Press, 1961): 135-136. 34. Yglesias, Isabel Bishop, p. 16, 35. Karl Lunde, Isabel Bishop (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1975): 17, 36. Ibid., p. 21. 37. Ruth Weisberg, “Webs of Movement and Feeling," Artreek 16 (March 9, 1985): 7. 38. Ibid. 39. Bishop, quoted by Reich (Isabel Bishop, p. 24). A year later, apparently unaware of Bishop’s consistent explanations of what she meant by “mobility,” the critic Lawrence Alloway, in an article entitled “Isabel Bishop, the Grand Manner and the Working Girl" (Art in America 63 [September 1975]: 63), saw Bishop’s figures as “embedded in their time” without the flexibility of moving beyond their inherited stations. He considered her attraction to the Fourteenth-Street "working girl, for example.” as a traditional upperclass view of laboring people. She depicted them as a continuation of Dutch peasant genre, uninhibited and robust He dismissed the implications of mobility, therefore, as spurious. In his opinion, Bishop valued her working girls because they represent a stratum ot tough, unchanging vitality. 40. Lunde, Isabel Bishop, p. 14. 41. John Hart. Albert Halper (Boston: Twayne, 19801: 45. 50. 42. Basil Rauch, The History oj the Neu Deal, 1933-193S (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. l°e>3): 8. 43. Dante Alighieri, The Divine Corneas, translated by Laurence Binyon in 77v Portable Dante, (New York: Vikin;, 1963): 1’3. 41 T. S Eliot, Dante (London: Faber, 1930): 39-40. 15 Herbert Spencer, Fin/ Pmunples, 4th ed. (New York, u 1880g .'3'-' t'L XJfe..l. I 31 George Luks High Tide at Idkbota's, 1933 oil on board, 16 x 20 iCollection of Scrdoni Art Gallery. Wilkes University Gift of Helen Farr Sloan Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 21 �H ■ mu»h ■ I and c. man grasps his left hand in his lap, his open ifdumbstruck by his situation. The fror,t holds onto a pair of crutches as he leans back in • to sleep. The others, to the rear, while slightly varied in Lstons. share J mood ot despondency. Except for the flighted faces, rhe painting is appropriately dark. Starr, “Interview with Isabel Bishop,' The Oral History pffice, Columbia University, 1956, Part 2, No. 16. top, quoted from an interview, March 18-19, 1974, with rich (Reich, Isabel Bishop [Tucson: University of Arizona fArt, 1974]: 25. s, quoted by L. Saury, “t he Message of Proletaire,” >4 (December 1911): 402. >ert H. Bremner, From tbe Depths The Discovery ofPoverty in Slates (New York New York University’ Press. 1956): 14. iop, quoted by Adelaide Kerr ( Isabel Bishop Paints Four Year,’ Toledo Times, May 2.1943). hop. quoted from an interview, March 18-19, 1974, with .eich [IsabelBishop,p. 24). In general reference to Bishop’s I ; of “working girls," the docent handout notes for Dante in Union Square at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, the consensus: “She has also said that what she was trying in her models was ‘mobility,’ not necessarily potential t. but rather social mobility, the possibility that these old do anything they wanted.’ rig Owens, “The Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of mism,” Odokr 12 (Spring 1980): 84. is figure does not appear in the final, squared-off drawing of i Virgil in Union Square but was added in the painting. hop, quoted in Starr, ‘Interview,* Part 2, No. 65. (hop, quoted in Yglesias, Isabel Bishop, p. 16. The full : is: “I used Union Square as a subject, crowds, people, the ity of souls. I was reading Dante then, in a very literal m. It struck me as a good story. It was the idea of the tty of souls that was enormously important to me.” (hop, quoted in Amerian Painting and Sculpture (Wilm(elaware Art Museum, 1975): 122. orge Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York: Iniversity Press, 1961): 135-136. ,lesias, Isabel Bisbcf, p. 16. irl Lunde, Isabel Bishop (New York: Hany N. .Abrams, 1975k 17 ii,p. 21. rth ’Xeisbag, “Webs of Movement and FaHinzf Arttneek 16 ', 1985): 7. id. shop, quoted by Reich [Isabel Bishop. p. 24). A year later, tycncaare of Bishop’s consistent explanations of what she r “mobility," the cntic Lawrence Alloway, in an article Isabel Buhcp, the Grand Manner and the Working Giri” •trcns 63 [September 15751: bi), saw Bishop’s figures as ed in thetr rime" wiaout the ffexftirfity of moving bevond rated stations. He considered her attraction to the .rT ■‘WOtkin??ri. for example," as a traditional upper‘ laboring people She depicted them as a continuation of «ant genre, uninhibited and robust. He dismissed the nsof[mobility, therefore, as spurious. In his opinion, nshtngirgXlmy gIrlS rCpKS“t " °f -nde./arWB^j. 14. ': • ,Eoston: Twayne, 1980g 45. 50. tnam^ Sons. ’9^7 B> l933~I93S YOrlL' a - Etor itrben^ ^f7\^Cyo7v unSbted LaUrcn“ Z?™ ’930/ ”t!E&JM0 i9«>fi9G^4lhed lN;wYork,c. lg80);530. Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University Gift of Helen Farr Sloan Photograph by Professional Photographic Services �UNION SQUARE’S ICON OF FREEDOM Stanley I Grand Wilkes University ■ '' Ur November 25, 1783, a contemporary observer s \_y watched General George Washington lead his t “weather-beaten and forlorn”1 troops into New York City. As Washington approached from the north, a ' 1 welcoming delegation gathered at “The Forks,” a spot where Old Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and Battery Road (once part of the Boston Post Road, now Fourth Avenue) met. Earlier in the day, General Sir Guy Carelton had evacuated the remaining British garrison onto ships anchored in the East River. The war for American independence was won. Since that November day, the area once known as The Forks, then as Union Place, and finally Union Square, has been associated with the concept of freedom. How this tradition evolved over two centuries will be traced in this essay by considering the physical development of the area, examining the iconography of the major public artworks sited on the square, and exploring the social history associated with the square. HISTORY OF THE SQUARE 40 John Sloan Fourteenth Street, The Wigwam, 1928 etching, 9’/< * 7 Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Gift of Helen Farr Sloan Photograph < ourtesy Delaware Art Museum Long before Captain Verrazano and the crew of the Dauphine became the first Europeans to sight Manhattan in the spring of 1524/ the area destined to become Union Square was a sand hill in the middle of the heavily forested island, populated by Algonquins of the Wappinger Confederacy? Almost a hundred years passed between Verrazano’s sighting and the arrival of the first white settlers, primarily French, in 1623, aboard the Netherlands which belonged to the Dutch West India Company. For safety reasons these settlers decided to establish a trading post on Governor's Island, a small parcel of land off the southern tip of Manhattan. Three years later, on May 4, 1626, Peter Minuit, the Director General of the Dutch province of New Netherland. assembled the local Indian chiefs, distributed among them 60 guilders worth of beads, cloth, hatchets, and 23 �UNION SQUARE’S ICONOGRAPHY OF FREEDOM Stanley I Grand I! ■ i November 25, 1783, a contemporary observer watched General George Washington lead his “weather-beaten and forlorn”1 troops into New York Qty. As Washington approached from the north, a welcoming delegation gathered at “The Forks,” a spot where Old Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and Battery Road (once part of the Boston Post Road, now Fourth Avenue) met. Earlier in the day, General Sir Guy Carelton had evacuated the remaining British garrison onto ships anchored in the East River. The war for American independence was won. Since that November day, the area once known as The Forks, then as Union Place, and finally Union Square, has been associated with the concept of freedom. How this tradition evolved over two centuries will be traced in this essay by considering the physical development of the area, examining the iconography of the major public artworks sited on the square, and exploring the social history associated with the square. HISTORY OF THE SQUARE Lt. .c before Captain Verrazano and the crew of the Dauphine became the first Europeans to sight Manhattan spring of 1524,2 the area destined to become cr; Square was a sand hill in the middle of the . tc’-fy tor-;,island, populated by Algonquins of the Wzpp ' y/.-r Confederacy.3 Almost a hundred years passed L • r Verra/ano's sighting and the arrival of the first ■/j'i'-r... primarily French, in 1623, aboard the New Nt'ktrland, which belonged to the Dutch West India Company. For afety reasons these settlers decided to •U i trading post on Governor’s Island, a small P<.n.' • o( land off the southern tip of Manhattan. Ihree year- Dor. on May 4, 16/6, I’etet Minuit, the Director ( of the Dutch ptovince of New Nel het land, d 'he local Indian chief,, distributed among 'Item 6 guilders worth of Dads, doth, hatchels, and 23 similar articles, and thereby purchased Manhattan for the equivalent of approximately forty dollars.4 Over the next 175 years, the future Union Square was deforested, farmed, and used as a potter’s field. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, as New York City continued to grow and expand northward, the state legislature realized that a plan was necessary to avoid the chaotic jumble of streets, lanes, and alleys characteristic of lower Manhattan and Greenwich Village. In 1807 the legislators empowered a commis­ sion, consisting of Gouvemeur Morris, Simeon De Witt, and John Rutherford, to draw up a comprehensive city plan for the area north of Fourteenth Street. In the prior year, 1806, it had been decided that Broadway should proceed due north, commencing at Tenth Street, which required the thoroughfare to make an acute angled bend to the west. Now, to obviate the maladroit intersection of Broadway and Bowery Road,5 the commissioners decided in 1811 to create Union Place since “the Union of so many large Roads demands space for the Security and convenience and the morsels into which it would be cut by continuing across it the several Streets and Avenues would be of little use or value.”6 A year later, in 1812, a Common Council committee became anxious over the “very heavy and unnecessary expense” and recommended that the square be “discontinued.”’ The Legislature ignored the recommendation although it did reduce the size of the square in 1815. By 1831 members of the Common Council had become concerned that the square was neither adequate in size nor pleasing in form. They petitioned the Legislature to reconfigure the “shapeless and ill-looking place, devoid of symmetry.”3 This was accomplished in 1832. and Union Place became Union Square.’ In the following year, the authorities ordered the existing “buildings and incumbrances" razed and the hill itself “graduated [graded] to the city level.""’ The ideal of civic well-being was dramatically symbol­ ized by the Croton Fountain in the center of the �going strong, if boisterously, according to . uks’s High Tide at Ltichow’s (Cat. no. 31). i the city city .had ,1, century,r the hau 1 -suited front bp? nd cholera (1832*"a, y in 1835, voters appr MhUi water supply nalh. from the water from the 'icfe.endunr to suppl) County.. The plan involve involved aqueduct. Th 1 he Ooton River in %nslrUcting an aqueduct damming the "vcr J^ricd the water across the Ha Harlem High Budge, whuh ca aqueduct in the R°ma Rivet, was justly held Acqua Felice of 15 sense, worthy of Pope S‘«us to France ... as at the those wondrous ru,"s -u On July 5,1842, the city Font du Gard near Nim Croton disputing celebrated the a e built in the Egyptian nu > reservoir, a great s HiU at Forty-Second S Which cTXe 'Although the Union Square founand Fifth Avenue Ah cau d by tain symbolized f d Templeton Strong wa imPUTXd ShorS"fter its inauguration he described middle, and nothing more.A “squirt” or not, the fountain was the focal p of • away on Irving nauc. nwiuj culture” were to be found: On Fifteenth Street was the Century Club, with the Union League Club not far away on another border of the Square. The Metropolitan Museum of Artsfirst home was on Fourteenth Street, the New-York H’s‘orl^al Society was just to the east on Second Avenue, while the Astor Library, the New York Society Library, and New York University were just to the south. To the west was fashionable Fifth Avenue, and just off the northeast comer was Gramercy Park, the city’s most elegant neighborhood.15 As early as 1860, however, the neighborhood had ’begun to change ' o: as commercial enterprises increasingly apP“rQed’ * ’ the ' area. T The transformation ,„.i was complete ----- -3e„Ch.Urcl? °f ?e, P?ntans> built scarcely twenty years earlier, was demolished to make way for the cast-iron Tiffany Building (subsequently the Amalgam­ ated Bank Building) at 11-15 Union Square West. In addition to Tiffany’s jewelry store and Brentano’s Literary Emporium, both of which fronted the western side of the square, other prestigious retailers, such as Vantine’s, whiih specialized in Oriental goods, and and station .™ Gorham's, known for its silver ..and stationary, co: ^competed for the patronage of the carriage trade."1 Catering primarily to a female client,il, Hearn’s, which opened its Fourteenth Street store in 1879, was known for its ■•I" tion of women's apparel. Residents and shoppers <ould dine nearby at Delmonico’s or Ltichow’s (estab­ lished 1882); a half .enttiry later, the latter was still 24 oniy did legitimate theaters appear, but, after ]%9 as welL In 1881> T Pastor opened his % (vaudevillc theater-offering wholesome family entertainment_in Tammany Hall. This landmark building, which John Sloan depicted in Fourteenth Street, ne Wigwam (Cat. no. 40) housed the Tammany Society 9 when lt moved lnt0 new headquarters on un^ Seventeenth Street and Ur-on Tammany Hall, a classically inspired building with a sunnounting four columns in the WaJdo parish’s Unton Square Rally (Cat no. 36). by Steinway and Sons in 1853, almost a dozen piano UdJ man well<rafted instruments. At this time, as bus Thomas^ co^plexity” of New York.18 Not only was “the Square... ^“fountain as “a circular basin with a squirt in th to most rrfuoubk resitalial tarto«uh. 1 "“Y8 ”'h .. the home of theaters, hotels, restaurants, department Broadway . .. the Square was also [by the to pkcc of bo[hwork and play for to.orki, and....................... immigrant classes of New York.”19 By the 1920s, the square had become a major shop­ ping center: “According to some accounts, stores sold more women’s apparel in one day on Union Square than in any other place in the country.”20 Symbolizing the change from Rialto to emporium is Samuel Klein’s purchase in 1924 of Steinway Hall, which he tore down and replaced with a seven-story department store that catered to the lower-class bargain shopper. The growth of S. Klein’s proceeded rapidly—in the thirties he was able to open a more upscale annex—and the signs adorning his shops appear in many works including Eugene C. Fitsch’s Unemployed Union Square (Cat. no. 23) and Union Square (Cat. no. 24). The legions of women shoppers who frequented the square became the subjects of works such as Kenneth Hayes Miller’s Leaving the Shop (Cat. no. 34) or Mary Fife’s Two Women with Children Crossing 'the Street'fCzt. no. 21). Over the years, Union Square itself underwent major changes. The square has assumed different shapes from ellipsoid of the 1840s to the present shield-like form. Architecturally, unlike the Place Vosage in Paris. Union Square is an eclectic mix of period styles: the aforemen­ tioned cast iron Tiffany Building, the Romanesque Lincoln Building (1889, 1 Union Square VCest),-' the SpanishMoorish Union Building (1893, 33 Union Square West), and a bit later, the Classical Revival Union Square Savings Bank (1907, now American Savings Bank, 20-22 Union Square bast). Not all critics find this variety pleasing. Richard Sennett, tor example, decries the “mechanka quotations of Renaissance and Baroque architectura. forms adding that “you don't recover the spirit of the 34 Kenneth Hayes Miller Leaving the Shop, 1929 etching, 7’s * 97. Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Service 25 �.-oucy according to Georg < < (Cat. no. 31). ynion Square neighborhood was the district (known as The Rialto).17 ire theaters appear, but, after 1869, 1881, Tony Pastor opened his rater—offering wholesome family nmany Hail. This landmark Sloan depicted in Fourteenth Street, 40) housed the Tammany Society aved into new headquarters on the mth Street and Union Square East, classically inspired building with a four columns in the center, appears ; Union Square Rally (Cat. no. 3c?. ans in 1853. almost a dozen pier, supply the growing theatrical cd instruments. A: this rime. as served. Union Square, “mere than dty... represented... the cultural >rki! Not only was “the Square ... hotels, restaurants, department .. the Square was also [by the h work and piay for the working at New York."1 ■ [uare had become a maier shopig to some accounts, stores sold i in one day on Union Square than the country."--’ Symbolizing the emporium is Samuel Klein’s teinway Hall, which he tore down ven-story department store that ass bargain shopper. The growth or ipidiy—in the thirties he was able le annex—and the signs adorning any works including Eugene C tun Square (Cat. no. 23; arid . 24). The legions of women ted the square became the s-J: jeers ueth Hayes Miller s Zaut .yg 'U Mary Fife’s Tao 'Xvrr.m -a t1!ki (Cat no. 11). ion Square itself underwent ma;or as assumed different shapes from to the present shield-like forme the Place Vosage in Pari-. Union nix of period styles: the aforemeny Building, the Romanesque Li.-.. ', n ion Square West)/1 the Span, ri­ ling (1893. 33 Union Square WL- c ■ssical Revival Union Square Savingrican Savings Bank, 20-22 Union critics find this variety pleasing , example, decries the “mechanic.!* stance and Baroque architec :ural ou don’t recover the spirit ot the - J,' -4 Kri i.r'u Ha;.-, Miller G« .4/ tie '.(■ ■;/, J 929 «■ ■;.;!•.•■, T. . ‘ »'/. jr> klier Gallery. U< w York r'-'.ioj-r.-j.h I,-; Profn-.iorial Photographic Servius 25 �tion) depicts the work m pr 8 statues were the Washington, Linco m Linej wo blocks to relocated. Work on th vided the subject of the west of Union Squa e, gojided 2g) Charles Kellers Open Cu changes. Morns Not all artists, howe , a nostalgic Kantor, for exampl , recently, the Farewell to during the 1980s. square underwent a major found a home inSsquare. Works‘ Lincoln, Lafayette^ and Gandhi g been Charity and the DeclarationHussion given by well-meaning citizens. will demonstrate that the idea o disparate monuments. Iinites these ree THE MAJOR ARTISTIC MONUMENTS TO FREEDOM The first statue to be sited at Union Square was the large bronze equestrian George Washington (1852-1856) created by Henry Kirke Brown (1814-1886) assisted by John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910).23 Prior to receiving the commission, Brown executed a plaster model, which was subsequently cast in bronze (Cat. no. 19). Not only was this the “first statue ornamenting a public site erected in New York since that day [Novem­ ber 25, 1783],”24 but was, as well, the only public statue of Washington then to be found in the city. Brown based Washington’s face on Houdon’s bust portrait, which the French artist had created from life.25 Richard Upjohn (1802-1878) designed the austere, fourteen-foot granite pedestal. The statue was presented to the nation on July 4, 1856, by a number of wealthy New Yorkers, who-under the leadership of Colonel James Lee-had raised $30,000 to pay for it.26 According to one author­ ity, the statue was located “on the very spot” where the citizemy had “received” Washington and his army.22 As originally installed, therefore, the statue would have thThorse’s ^mple^^Vd^6115 e^evate<^ v'ew ............ * , whose quaint .............. ........ has ridden from out the horrors of war hi ■! - r, ., only for its ends of justice, calmly re-i; y,.-- , j steed amidst the acclamations of victories ■’ assured liberty, his sword, ever wielded with tempered by mercy, is firmly sheathed no-l0t','‘ again, for his country’s foes are vanqui- Led and he?11 no other; his broad, benign brow is bare in acknotvld? ment of our unanimous love; and, as he passes on f the great past of his glorious deeds into the great which will develop the stupendous destinies of the nation, whose life he inaugurated, his hand is stretched forth, with grave gesture, not more in promise to iuti loyalty than in deprecation of the... treason that would ™ imperil our vital unity by goading the silkness of sectional jealousy into the blind fury of fratricidal hate* Continuing on this theme by leaders comparing the (Fabius accoir. plishments ot wasmngton witn ancient plishments of Washington with leaders ancient (Fabius Cat0> Scipio Africanus, Epamnondas, Cincinnatus) and modern (Cromwell and Napoleon), Bethune concluded that “Washington alone has the honor of bavins established established free free principles principles and and perpetuated perpetuated his his work work””»31 Yet he cautioned that those very principles were in danger and pleaded to God, who gave him, keep that life in us! for, when that spirit is lost, when our elements revolt from their oneness, and, like the maniac among the tombs, whose devils were Legion, we cut and tear ourselves, this fair confederacy will soon lie beneath the heavens the most mangled, loathsomest coipse that ever polluted the breath of humanity with its putrification. Some of the devils are in us now.31 In sum, Dr. Bethune’s words, uttered before a vast gathering and transmitted to an even greater audience on the following day when the entire speech appeared on the front page of the New York Evening Times, urged the return to the ideals associated with the founding of the Republic and served, further, as a tocsin against the gathering storm of sectional conflict that was to erupt four years later in 1860. Brown’s George Washington joined a long parade of monumental equestrian civic monuments celebrating military victors. At the head of this tradition is the second century a.d. bronze Marcus Aurelius, whkh ______________ Bethune indirectly _______ evoked bv, picturing ashington ’ ■ to rule. ’ Mateus "ascending the Capitoline height Aurelius, the humanist Roman emperor whose dC tions encapsulate concisely the stoic ideal, repn>en^ many Plato’s philosopher king. With the devnne c Roman Empire, however, the ability and ne'-e“j, w produce large bronzes of this type faded ano t -3 do so were lost. Although works such as th.s^n’.er, Bamberg Rider (late thirteenth century. Bam M many) were occasionally carved tor jrc'li,cU?.r’. ven i’f it was not until the Renaissance when the r ■ ,, lost casting techniques, revived interest in t e growing cult of fame, and economic prosper!. 19 Henn' Kirke Brown General George Wasbhtgfon on He bronze model, 37' > x 42‘i x 12' Collection of Yale University Al Civen in Memory of Edmund I and Eliphalet Bradford Ter Photograph courtesy Yale Unive �has ;6. in ibilign. cs to 28). ris , the me :n. 1 been reion ese he by no. a emitue i hard foot non trs, ad borthe r As e» of ie MOI mg A hi,: re. • ! = out the horrors of war his heart endur-a only for ends of justice, calmly restraining his proud ‘ steed amidst the reclamations of victorious peace ar. a assured liberty, hrs sword, ever wielded with strength tempered by mercy, is finely sheathed not to drawn again, for his country's foes are vanquished and he knew no other; his broad, benign brow ts bare in a,knowh ^ -= ment of our unanimous love, and, as be passes en tro-' the great past of his glorious deeds ttno the great rut'are which will develop the stupendous destinies of the nation, whose life he inaugurated, hrs hand is »t:e;c , forth, with grave gesture, not more m premise to suture loyalty than in deprecation c f the. . treason that w<x_re ' imperil our vital unity bv goading the sickness of sectional jealousy mto the blre.c fury of fra tn, rec i hate Continuing on this these ire comparing the uccoi". p’ishments of'Kbshingrcn with irectrs incten: :Fab;v< Cato, Scipio Africanus, Epgrinmnus, Ctn.nnn.re.-re ■ i;-modern iCrcrnwCi and Xapciem , tethunc ccncindeh that Tasbir.gmn :icni h_> the honor of having established free principles and perpenmted ms w-rL" Yet he auroned th;t there- verc prinepiss were •danger and pitre.re Gcdwre i~i hits. seep mat ide in _-i tie when tint: stint is it:-:, wits our Ceoer.5 revclt from the_r onesere. rei lie re trannie reg the tombs, w ire se aevib were Legren. -v ret red ire eurselves, tire fare . ■retv.re. ■ a-_ sc ~ re bens re tne heavens the me mangiec. .reiirenieit ..rtre rere ever pc_iuteri the bread; . ’renire.’y with re f _ .::n_rere. Scene the dtrrth are re . rere In -m. S S: i.-.n srrn re.rer:J treble r va gi’.htn.re ,7. :ran.~.ir’rt re re even greater reiren.v ■red-re . i.re iire re: rere■ ??reh iptz.'.tz ire. rer.rere rent ’Az i'-t Lz:~.'. Tir::.. .rpyg rec re'um. , ;tw . -. re ire w.re. ire re'.rre.ng cf ret RepLirk and -reei f.-:.zz. . re . re. re.ir. ' '.fre ptherisg stonn of settxxul confbct that was to erupt four years k-er ;r. Biown' . .re /_•> . 7.-- . . p.r- i- mreu.renre ere--re - mre.-Eients reirere’-r.; nre.’.-n re:re. A' t i red • • ... rere second rere.r, ; ' - .i. • ,r re. re rer . ^. . ascending the CapitdiEt height to rAjtreu.. t;;t ...n..;..'f re/remr »i . b*t encapsulate ameudy the stoic ideal, represented for nrey !d.-: ■ , ri„: ■r: y .j- .. .. •■. Roman Empire, however, the abtiiry and necewty *o produce Urge bron/es -his tv, - tired and the ■ i °;'re*-ire . - Aith-^h » !t ■-•'’e.., mt it but ? .!jtc < ....... jrerr.l 19 Ur .•re-- C-/.■ ' Kit). EtoA'ii fj>. j r X'u lmiybin nn /luribiiik,1 - IMS? (cast 1912) ■'•./• ■■ - :< I, ',7G - 42G 12*/< f . t ..I Yale I 'iir.HMty Ah Gallfly, tlrw I lawn ?j:?. Jr.re’, for ar ire. 'ut^i ' ' r'.'1' ’ Un,i' ''nr Renureai ■; U •) - ’■ i ' ‘r’-. 11,-reret -ire re '■ re' 1 f u tot tame, and econonuc prosperity f ul't ' .. .1. Idmun-l Imy, II A IH57, I dmund Roderick leny, H A . • d 1 ■ j.i re-i Bradford 1. ny B.A 1HHH, by Miss Marion lerry 1'1 I’Hyr fi < ..-.(I. Yale I juversity An Gallery C.v 27 �> ■■■ I, I in the reappearance of large, freestanding bronze SueX statues. The iconography of the monumental, mounted condottiere, or military leader reappear,s in Paolo Uccello’s painting SirJohn Hawkwood (1436, Florence); within a few years of its completion, Dona­ tello began his Gattamelata (c. 1445-1450, Padua), the first surviving monumental bronze equestrian statue, since Roman times. This was followed by Verrocchio s Bartolommeo Colleoni (c. 1483-1488, Venice) and Leo­ nardo’s ill-stared, never completed project for Milan. Subsequently, the equestrian statue became one of the most popular of monarchial authority and becameand thepotent visual images grounding for countless vista’s and public spaces, both in Europe and in the United States. Brown’s achievement, however, consists not only in his ability to create a work of this magnitude and complexity-it was one of the first large equestrians to be cast in the United States-but also in that he redefined a symbol long associated with absolutism and tyranny into one befitting of the founder of the American republic.14 The civic ideals embodied in the statue were under great challenge at the time of its inauguration. Not only, as Bethune noted, did a growing separatist movement threaten to destroy the Union itself, but also the great influx of immigrants, most of whom were uneducated '-~4 in the traditions of American democracy, were viewed by many as a growing menace. In 1856, the same year the equestrian was installed, the American Sunday School Union lamented, The refuse population of Europe... congregate in our great cities and send forth wretched progeny, degraded in e deep degradation of their parents-to be the scaven­ gers, physical and moral, of our streets. Mingled with elTdmnk S° the OfF?St ChiIdren OfAmer'Can debauch- ..Murbjn disorder mounted and the wicked-city stereotype gained currency in the late antebellum period, the moral-control impulse became, for some, correspondingly more urgent.”36 Thus Brown’s George Washington would have also served as a didactic paradigm, a point underscored by Bethune: “we have set the lofty image there, that it may stand forth a memorial of divine mercy, a monitor of our duty, an example to all coming generations.”37 Bethune’s concept of duty, which he shared with many of the era’s other moral leaders, might well be described as noblesse oblige. Praising the benefactors who paid for the statue, he said: “Wealth has heavy responsibilities and must therefore have its reputation; when one [won] by private or public dishonesty, it is a livery of shame[;] when hoarded or spent for mere self, it is like gilding on vile pottery; when fairly acquired and fairly used it is respectable; but when liberally devoted to true charity and the common benefit, it deserves extraordinary celebration.”" Ironically, during the difficult years of the 28 depression, the base of Brown’s statue became a fa spot for the unemployed to gather, a scene recorded j Reginald Marsh’s Discussion (Al Base of Union " Washington Statue) (Cat. no. 32) and his Union Square (Cat. no. 33). Although Washington’s gesture of bfossfo appears twice in Eugene C. Fitsch’s Union Sip.-arc (Cat n 24), it cannot provide any relief to men without jobs ° Henry Kirke Brown also created the second statue to be placed at Union Square, a bronze Abraham Lincoln which was paid for by popular subscription organized by the Union League Club.3’ Originally standing on a smallr— parcel of land at^the intersection of Fourteenth -----Street and University Place, the statue w~ ‘•MullTCnU1 1870 without, curiously, “any formal - ‘nstaI[ed *n 1870 without, curiously, “any formal ceremony. ‘ ert™onv””«® Lincoln rises almost eleven feet in height and stands on a twenty-four foot granite pedestal. Although the pedestal has no inscription, “a galaxy of stars [36 of them] representing each State in the Union” is incised in the upper stone.41 Subsequently a parapet and balus­ trade were installed around the statue. On the plinth of the parapet is the inscription, taken from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, “With Malice Toward None, With Charity For All.”42 The statue (but not the parapet) was moved to its present location, seen in Raphael Soyer’s On the Steps (Cat. no. 44), when Union Square was raised during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The reporter who covered the installation for The New York Times observed approvingly that Lincoln’s “wellknown face is reproduced with photographic accuracy.”43 From the shoulders of the but-recently-martyred president falls an “ample cloak ... in the fashion of a Roman toga.”44 The head is bare and the left hand holds the Emancipation Proclamation. Subsequent critics, however, have tended to denigrate the aesthetic qualities of the work, faulting especially its static, column-like form. One commentator felt that the Lincoln “suffers in outline for being a too literal expression of the very - ---u.uxo-U 111 I ,uts o owing the Civil War. 43 A more telling appraisal was at rown, like his American contemporaries “rarely create a penetrating psychological study of his subject.. .’ Instead, a naturalistic likeness was all’that was ernanded. Brown could not go beyond this even with such a heroic figure as Lincoln.”46 On April 25, 1865, approximately five years before rown s Lincoln came to stand at Union Square, the teat Emancipator’s body, after lying in state at City a > continued its slow, solemn, homeward journey to Winors. The funeral procession headed up Broadway to ourteenth Street, passed by the southern end of Inion quare before proceeding up Fifth Avenue and then westward to the Hudson River Railroad depot. Shortly a ter the procession passed by, a memorial service for the martyred President was held in Union Square. Two 1 ousand citizens gathered in front of the speakers Platform and heard George Bancroft deliver the princiPal eulogy. After noting that “the friends of freedom 0‘ 44 Raphael Soyer On the Steps, 1930s watercolor and pencil, 9 ' 73'« Courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York Photograph courtesy of Fotum Gallery �own's statue became a favorite to gather, a scene recorded in ,7 ('■?/ Base of Union Square o. 32) and his Union Square Washington's gesture of blessing Fitsch’s Union Square (Cat. no relief to men without jobs. o created the second statue to i, a bronze Abraham Lincoln. pular subscription organized Originally standing on a t intersection of Fourteenth e, the statue was installed in any formal ceremony. ven feet in height and stands lite pedestal. Although the i, “a galaxy of stars [36 of :ate in the Union’ is incised in gently a parapet and balus1 the statue. On the plinth of on, taken from Lincoln’s “With Malice Toward None, The statue (but not the present location, seen in tts (Cat no. 44). when Union : late 1920s and early 193'?$. rd the installation for Xex ringly that Lincoln’s “weVwith photographic accuracy."'but-recently-marryre d leak ... in the fashion of s 's bare and the left hand holds lation. Subsequent ertrics. enigrate the aesthetic c'-Utties dally its static, cok.mn-bKe elt that rhe Lin: > “suiter? tn real expression of the very f the years immediately ’ A more telling appraisal was ican contemporaries “rare.y lologkal study of has subjectkeness was all that was ot go beyond this even with coin.”44 roximately five years before tand at Union Square, tne , after lying in stare at City ■olemn, homeward tourney >•-’ ssion headed up Broadway by the southern end of Union up Fifth Avenue and then liver Railroad depot. Shortly 1 by. a memorial service tor is held tn Union Square. Two 1 in front of the speakers ;e Bancroft deliver the princ:hat “the friends of freedom ot ■. and per ■ i], ’> ' i '< lornm Gallery, New York ; • ■ UI!< r,l | (, Jlel, �■ II I _ m 1 in every I-"’a are his mournerS’" gSSttf-. adminisitation oix s< w'.,hinRton the ground on them; that when heI < ■ kft ''^^n^Sioni.hat traitors had seized nfPa‘ >ni uscnals, and he recovered them ... that the capital, w hich he found the abode of slaves, now the home onlv of the free ... and the gtganttc system of wrong, which had been the work of more than two centuries, is dashed down, we hope forever. Bancroft then asked “How shall the nation most ipletely show its sorrow?... How shall it best honor com] his memory?" and answered that, “above everything else, Ithe Emancipation Proclamation must] be affirmed and maintained.”4’ After providing a lengthy legal defence of the Proclamation, Bancroft concluded by stating “that a constitution which seeks to continue a caste of hereditary bondsmen through endless generations is inconsistent with the existence of republican institutions.”4’ Before dispersing, the crowd heard several prayers and a pair of poems-one but a few hours old—by W. C. Bryant. On September 6, 1876, a new apostle of freedom joined Washington and Lincoln in Union Square. While the assembled bands played the “Marsellaise,” FrdddricAuguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) unveiled his Marquis de Lafayette? Edmond Breuil, the French Consul General, presented the statue to New York City on behalf of his government in gratitude for assistance rendered during the Franco-Prussian War.51 Although now facing Union Square East, at the time of its dedication the statue was sited at the southern end of the Square, in such a way that Lafayette appeared in an “attitude of offering his hand and his sword to Washington.”52 “To The City of New York, France, In Remembrance Of Sympathy In Time Of Trial. 1870-71” and “As Soon As I Heard of American Independence My Heart Was Enlisted. 1776” are inscribed on the pedestal along with garlands of laurel, symbolizing victory, in low relief.53 Although Brown’s Lincoln and Bartholdi’s Lafayette show some formal similarities, fundamentally they exemplify two different sculptural traditions.54 In both figures one arm crosses the chest (Lincoln’s right gracefully and lightly /•»!>', "he ”7 and figur<- j jk, j M’lly Imposing the 'am- the.onv-x linc ,)(M‘‘"1UIS Serous assis- — .... ±1iaiu,;n,,w,iiiiw-'Hn,,h(lrJWnsilhl’11 ^/'f'vLmoh. IhH,"^ ....."* .. ............ 30 Like the nation itself during these postwar yearLincoln embodied a spirit “darker, sadder, sober’ The dedication of Bartholdi’s Lafayette coiX. summer of celebrations honoring the center,a- , - ’ American Independence. Present were a large r.' .■ X military troops, including a “phalanx” of elder! °F veterans from the War of 1812.56 F. R. Coudert gave th main address, which The New York Time: printed'“in substance.” Like the other speakers, Coudert evoked Lafayette’s love of freedom: “He served the cause of freedom in a foreign land [and] the same cause in his own land.”57 After noting that he spoke on Lafayette’s birthday, Coudert found the physical placement of thstatue symbolic and most appropriate: He [Lafayette] would surely tell us that the place for him was next to the one [Washington] who called him “Son,” and who loved him with a father’s love. And lest, looking up to these two founders of our nation, and glorying much in the heritage which they have transmitted, we should forget that the bloodiest of our trials was brought upon us, not by foreign hands nor rival nations, but by our own hot and intemperate haste, we have before us the image of that President [Lincoln] whose fortune it was to hold the helm of State during the stormiest times of our history, and we may all, I think, unite in saying that whatever faults partisan spirit may justly or unjustly impute to him, whatever shortcomings he may have carried with him to the judgment seat, yet was he so earnest in his love of freedom, so honest in his love of country, so kindly and so gentle in his love of his fellows, that the illustrious men who now bear him company would cheerfully admit him to their friendship.51 Nevertheless, the font of enlightenment idealism, optimism, and liberalism on which the Declaration of Independence had been drawn (and indeed codified) had become polluted by the political realities of the day. The party of Lincoln had, under President Grant, become synonymous with corruption, cronyism, and criminality. The same and worse, much worse, could be said of the governance of New York City under Boss Tweed, whose “ring” had systematically robbed millions of dollars from the city treasury.59 A few months after the dedica­ tion, in an occurrence symbolic of the era, Rutherford B. Hayes literaly stole the presidential election of 1876.“’ Five years after the dedication of Bartholdi’s Lafayettf New Yorkers assembled for the unveiling of the f Square Drinking Fountain (the James Fountain), which The New York Times characterized as “the handsomest fountain on Manhattan Island.”61 Created by Karl Adolph Donndorf, and presented to the City by DWillis James, the fountain was “more pretentious as a wr of art than any other in the city.”62 Atop the bronzy fountain is a group, seven feet high, also of bronz^. consisting of a mother and two children, one a babe m arms, the other a bare-legged little boy running at et. side.... The mother is clothed in drapery in the c as t 14 Isabel Bishop Study of Lafayette, n.d. graphite, 10 ‘ a * 7:o (sheet) Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 31 �these postwar years. Brown's the ru ■ -it "darker, sadder, soberer.”55 jin cm-.-" re cdedic.. ■- ■' Bartholdi’s Lafayette concluded mer of celebrations honoring the centenary . of rican Independence. Present were,a large number of ary troops, including a "phalanx” of elderly ans from the War of 1812“ F. R. Couden gave th.ie i address, which The New York Times printed "in ance.” Like the other speakers, Couden evoked rette’s love of freedom: "He served the cause of om in a foreign land [and] the same cause in his land.”57 After noting that he spoke on Lafayette's day, Coudert found the physical placement of the . symbolic and most appropriate: [Lafayette] would surely tell us that the place for him ; next to the one [Washington] who called him “Son,” 1 who loved him with a father’s love. And lest, locking to these two founders of our nation, and glorying ch in the heritage which they have transmitted, we mid forget that the bloodiest of our trials was brought ;n us. not by foreign hands nor rival nations, but by ■ own hot and intemperate haste, we have before us the ;ge of that President [Lincoln] whose fortune it was to d the helm of State during the stormiest rimes of our ton’, and we may alh I think, unite Ln saying that never faults partisan spirit may justly or unjustly jute to him, whatever shortccmmgs he may have tied with him to the mdgment seat, yet was he so nest in his love of freedom, so hottest in his love of intry, so kindly and so gentle in his love of his fellows, t the illustrious men who new bear him company old cheerfully admit him to their friendship.55 vertheiess, the font of enlightenment idealism lism, and liberalism on which the Declaration of >endence had been drawn land indeed codified) had ne polluted by the political realities of the cay. The of Lincoln had, under President Grant, become tytnous with corruption, cronyism, and criminality, ante and worse, much worse, could be said of the nance or New York City under Boss Tweed, whose ” had systematically robbed millions of dollars the city treasury. ' A few months after the dedicain an occurrence symbolic of the era, Rutherford tyes literals- stole the presidential election of 1876.“-’ ’e years after the dedication of Bartholdi's Lafayette, Workers assembled for the unveiling of the Union 'tDnnkini Fountain (the James Fountain). which sfi? York Tinus characterized as “rhe handsomest tain on Manhattan Island.Created by Karl ph Donndort, and presented to the City by D. 5 James, the fountain was "more pretentious as a ’work t han any other in the city.”*2 Atop the bronze tain is a group, seven feet high, also of bronze, 2SisUr,g ofl mother and two children, one a babe in f . e °tb.er a bare-legged little boy running at her '' e mother is clothed in drapery m the classic 14 Isabel Bishop '.ludy of Ijifayettt, n.d graphite, joy, , ■/ ■/< (sheet) ''.ouitesy of of DC 1jo Moore Gallery, G.J!<-iy, New York Gourte.y Holograph by Professional Photographic Services 31 �«vle' “U’ '’m’ 'CS‘other?neck and the other extended J,s|xd tht ' blroth(,|. wh0 is tiying to take from Smother th pitcher she carries in her left hand, and l^ fi contained water, as it is supposed to, would, m thJ’atigle at which it is held, be spilled by any but a person of bronze. The fountain itself consists of four basins, shaped like -iant shells into which once flowed jets of water from the mouths' of four lions. The remainder of the fountain is highly decorated with a menagerie of flying birds; crawling salamanders; butterflies; dragonflies; and garlands of flowers, leaves, and fruits.64 Together these symbolize earthly bounty and abundance. The lower portion of the fountain, including bronze basins, is visible in Isabel Bishop’s Girls Sitting in Union Square Fountain (Cat. nos. 8 and 9), Man at Fountain (Cat. no. 10), and Mending (Cat. no. 11). The theme of charity invoked by the inscription surrounding the nearby Lincoln predominates in the James Fountain, which was intended as an allegory of Charity, the foremost of the three theological virtues.65 In his dedicatory remarks, James made this interpreta­ tion explicit: “If the bronze ... shall be the means of kindling in any heart that spirit of love-Charity—it is intended to illustrate, I shall indeed be more than compensated. ”66 Professor Leonard Corning, who in gave the keynote speech of the J. day, concurred by seeing the fountain “the exemplification of that best chosen emblem of charity, the motherly instinct. It will ever stand a silent preacher of the institutes of Christian kindness as well as an enduring work of art.”67 Both Mayor Grace, who accepted the fountain on behalf of New York City, and the Reverend Dr. Roswell D Httchcock saw in the fountain an altruistic gesture to e p t e disadvantaged, many of whom were recent immigrants. the donor other munificent The workmayor ... forthanked the betterment offor thehis condi tiono P°°r and working classes by proviJng for" th m tenement-houses, clean, healthy, and at a reasone rate of rental-the most practical and munificent of works of charity.”68 The Reverend Dr. Hitchcock echoed this sentiment as he praised “the merchant princes of New York [who] were .. . leading the world in benefi­ cences for the public good, of which this fountain is an example, and in this way earning what their fortune should incite them to obtain more than anything else, But thP the reward of popular gratitude and affection.”69 bur tne need for charity was not directed only toward the poor; 11 nation itself needed charity, and forgiveness, after umonifind ?n 'n7dibIy dest™ctive Civil War. Charity, penomfied in the James Fountain, was an essential “li^libe",?'1 of 'he American ideal of 111• >‘lHHy and the pursuit of happiness ” ............. ..... Rising to a height of ninety feet in the centc . • Square and costing $80,000, the flagstaff rep;.. • /.?r‘ earlier Liberty flagpole erected by the Tammany s-" that had stood at the southern end of the he base of the Murphy flagpole was intended to b - . M “permanent public exposition” of the Dcclar.tion of Independence, whose text, along with the names of signatories, appears -- . in .. high ’ ' relief' on1 an eight-foot<. u„ base, a s«-and-a-half-f00t square tablet. Encircling ,the nn which which Anthony Anthnmr de rlzi Framed E------1 bronze relief on ’ labored for three vears denir,. I887~ 1964) labored for three years, depict s “the evils of' oppression and bondage and the blessings of indepen dence and liberty.”71 These allegorical figures trace “the march of mankind from slavery to freedom.”72 Sadly th» well-dressed, seated figures in Isabel Bishop’s^/ of the Flagpole (Idle Conversation) (Cat. no. 1) were shonly to be replaced by more desperate individuals enjoying “the blessings of independence” brought on by wide­ spread urban unemployment. Inscribed on the pedestal by Perry Coke Smith is Thomas Jefferson’s admonition: “How little my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy.”73 Other decorative motifs include the coats of arms of the United States and of the original thirteen states. The most recent statue to be installed at Union Square is a likeness of Mohandas Gandhi by . ‘ r’ r y kthe Indi™ ndlan scu^ptor Kantilal B. Patel. Dedicated on the" " October ” 92,1986, 1Q9,: -k 117th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, the eight-foot bronze depicts a bespectacled, striding Gandhi holding a bamboo walking stick and wearing a dhoti, a garment associated with Hindu asceticism.74 The figure stands on a low concrete pedestal about four feet high, to which a bronze plaque is attached with Gandhi’s dates (October 2, 1869-January 30, 1948) and a quotation that sumsup his political philosophy: “My optimism rests on my ‘ln^Iute possibilities ' 16 fm of the individual to develop nonviolence. ... In a gentle way you can shake the world.” The plaque further indicates that the statue was presented to “the city of New York and the citizens of the United States of America” from the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation. Yogesh K. Gandhi, a great-grandnephew of Mohandas, led the effort to place the statue in Union Square; Mohan B. Muriani underwrote most of the $60,000 cost.75 At the dedication, Parks Commissioner Henry I. Stem observed ‘I can think of no better place to honor Mahatma Gandhi than Union Square park, which his been a forum for public assembly and peaceful protest since the early part of the 20th century." '' His remark r -t f TT » 1 « ■ >' addressed objections that had been raised by various groups, including the Union Square Park Comm unit' Coalition. Even more relevant, however, Gandhi continued the tradition of honoring individuals "b° had dedicated their lives to the ideal of freedom ashington, Gandhi was paterpatria who had led a colonial revolt for freedom against the British-1n;! L 9 (left) Isabel Bishop Girls Sitting in Union Square Fountain, 1936 etching, 57s * 47s Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmingt Gift of Helen Farr Sloan Photograph courtesy Delaware Art Museum 10 (right ’ Isabel Bishop Man at Fountain, 1945 (printed 1985) etching, 4 .7 « 3"s Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Servic �to a height of ninety feet in the center of U ■ and costing $80,000, the flagstaff replaced an'* Liberty flagpole erected by the Tammany Socic d stood at the southern end of the square70 Th ' the Murphy flagpole was intended to be a 6 inent public exposition” of the Declaration of ndence, whose text, along with the names of th ries, appears in high relief on an eight-foottablet Encircling the base, a six-and-a-half-f00t relief, on which Anthony de Francisci (1887abored for three years, depicts “the evils of ;ion and bondage and the blessings of indepen,nd liberty.”71 These allegorical figures trace “the of mankind from slavery to freedom.”72 Sadly, the rssed, seated figures in Isabel Bishop’s At the Base " lagpole (Idle Conversation) (Cat. no. 1) were shortly tplaced by more desperate individuals enjoying usings of independence” brought on by wideurban unemployment. Inscribed on the pedestal y Coke Smith is Thomas Jefferson’s admonition: itde my countrymen know what precious js they are in possession of and which no other on earth enjoy.”73 Other decorative motifs the coats of arms of the United States and of the 1 thirteen states. most recent statue to be installed at Union Square mess of Mohandas Gandhi by the Indian sculptor 1 B. Patel. Dedicated on October 2, 1986, the nniversary of Gandhi’s birth, the eight-foot depicts a bespectacled, striding Gandhi holding a walking stick and wearing a dhoti, a garment ted with Hindu asceticism.7’ The figure stands on oncrete pedestal about four feet high, to which a plaque is attached with Gandhi’s dates (October -January 30, 1948) and a quotation that sums up ideal philosophy: “My optimism rests on my n the infinite possibilities of the individual to ) nonviolence.... In a gentle way you can shake rid.” The plaque further indicates that the statue isented to “the city of New York and the citizens United States of America” from the Gandhi rial International Foundation. Yogesh K. Gandhi, -grandnephew of Mohandas, led the effort to he statue in Union Square; Mohan B. Murjani rrote most of the $60,000 cost.75 he dedication, Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stem ed “I can think of no better place to honor ma Gandhi than Union Square park, which has forum for public assembly and peaceful protest he early part of the 20th century.”'4 His remarks sed objections that had been raised by various s, including the Union Square Park Community ■■or.. Even more relevant, however, Gandhi ■ued the tradition of honoring individuals who emcated their lives to the ideal of freedom. Like pater patriot who had led a “•Iev0;t for freedom against the British. Unlike I I I I I 1 » 9 (lift) Isabel Bishop Girls Sitting in Union Square Fountain, 1936 etching, 57a x 47a Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Gift of Helen Farr Sloan Photograph courtesy Delaware Art Museum 10 (right) Isabel Bishop Man at Fountain, 1945 (printed 1985) etching, 47a x y/t Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services �1 - i: Washinjion. ho«w«. G‘“J\„|kfng sriek. for resistance in his strugg •■ H Gandhi led; his dhoti alludes to the many^arh« sdf_sufficiency, recalls the movement hr.mesDun clothing, that symbolized by inPst the British; and served as a powerful , grecalis the numerous finally, his thin, birdlii Y of llbeny hunger strikes he un , appropriateness of Although ^^^XVsuch as Gandhi, this objection honoring ^.^ y when °ne recalls the importance seems ironic, especia _y ially Dr. Martin SOCIAL HISTORY As WE HAVE SEEN, the association of Union Square with freedom began with Washington’s triumphant approach to the city in 1783. Until the 1860s, however, City Hall rather than Union Square was the locus of political protest in the city. As residential neighborhoods moved northward, so did political activity. Between the Civil War and World War II, Union Square was the gathering site for rallies of every cause. Although a few organized protests had been held in the square during the 1850s—in 1859 George 7’empleton Strong recorded in his diary observing a grand demon­ stration” of two thousand “Reds” honoring “the pious Orsini” and a co-conspirator who had attempted, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Louis Napoleon7i-the tradition of protest truly began with the Civil War. In December 1859, a mass rally was held in favor of preserving the Union. The “largest” political gathering to date-estimates of the crowd vary from 100,000 to 250,000-was held shortly after Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor during the early morning hours of April 12, 1861.” Along with demonstrations in favor of national unity, Union Square increasingly became a site of class con­ flict. Yet, as Paul Boyer has noted, “Urban disorder was familiar enough from the antebellum period ... in the Gilded Age it took on a more menacing aura as a direct expression of labor unrest.”80 One of the earliest labor demonstrations occurred in 1860 when striking railroad drovers gathered at the George Washington statue Workers who had lost their jobs in the economic depression of 1873 rallied at Unton Square and urged Kni.Ci.T %^the unemPlQyed- In the 1880s, the Knights of Labor repeatedly called for the adoption of Day « an Z7u M the estabIishme™ of Labor ay as an official holiday. In 1887, when the state Union Square T„ ° i hour day converged on tint ’ celeb'“'! 8«>h«ed io c r an ei?ht' «rmjny May Dly pLTBnhdemta X” 34 as teenth century; Union Square had become r with labor unrest. According to David Duwhat oversimplified view, “As the square be. point for unionists, socialists, and anarchist;. . - - • stores slipped away to Fifth Avenue.”’1 In the first two decades of the twentieth century Union Square was the site of numerous demonstrati In the summer of 1914, the Anti-Militarist I;asU1: “funeral service” for three anarchists, who died under 1 mysterious circumstances, after protesting the “Ludlow Massacre,” which had occurred when company guards shot and killed striking miners and their families in * Ludlow, Colorado.82 After a decline in the number of political rallies during most of the 1920s, the final years of the decade saw a reawakening of unrest. On the evening of August 22, 1927, thousands gathered in the square to await the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.83 Violence erupted when police sought to disperse the crowd. As the twenties drew to a close, political activity increased. Responding to the new mood, the Communists, in 1929, organized the first May Day parade in thirteen years.84 Latei that year, on October 29, the stock market crashed. Writing in 1939, Frederick Lewis Allen dramatically summarized the impact of the market decline: “In a few short weeks it had blown into thin air thirty hillion dollars-3 sum almost as great as the entire cost to the United States of its participation in the World War, and nearly twice as great as the entire national debt.”” The repercussions were immediate: unemployment, reduced production, a decline in prices, postponed expansion, and a curtailment of foreign trade. Breadlines, “the worm that walks like a man” in Heywood Broun’s poignant phrase, began to form.' Reginald Marsh’s No One Has Starred (not in exhibition), which appeared in the New Masses, depicts one such worm. Marsh’s title brings to mind Jonathan Norton Leonard's mordant description in Three Years Down (1939): “All of them [the striking miners] were hungry and many were dying of those providential diseases which enable welfare authori­ ties to claim that no one has starved.”8' Although stocks rose briefly' in the early months of 1930, in April they began the long descent that contin­ ued until they reached their nadir in 1932. In March, 1930, the New York State Industrial Commissioner announced that unemployment had reached its highest level since the state had begun collecting statistics in 1914.8a Despite this evidence, many otherwise well informed individuals did not comprehend, or chose to ignore, the seriousness of the problem: In a poll con­ ducted by the National Economic League in January 1930, respondents rated unemployment eighteenth _ among the “paramount problems” facing the nau°R' This background provides the context tor the^,.n > of March 6, 1930, when Union Square witnessed ®e largest Communist demonstration ever held in . York City’.90 Estimates of the size of the crowd varied vauft- 36 Betty Waldo Parish Union Square Rally, c. 1935-1945 etching, 7’/* z 91, Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallen; New York holograph by Professional Photographic Ser.t.s �■. Union Square had become synonymous rest. According to David Dunlap’s some. >Iified view, “As the square became a focal mists. socialists, and anarchists, the old away to Fifth Avenue.”41 wo decades of the twentieth century, was the site of numerous demonstrations ■ of 1914, the Anti-Militarist League held e” for three anarchists, who died under zumstances, after protesting the “Ludlow ch had occurred when company guards ! striking miners and their families in ado.82 ne in the number of political rallies 'the 1920s, the final years of the decade ling of unrest. On the evening of August sands gathered in the square to await the icco and Vanzetti.83 Violence erupted ught to disperse the crowd. As the o a close, political activity increased. the new mood, the Communists, in 1929, irst May Day parade in thirteen years.*4 on October 29, the stock market crashed. 939. Frederick Lewis Allen dramatically e impact of the market decline “In a few tad blown into thin air rfriry billion ;lmost as great as the entire cost to the if its participation in the World War. and great as the entire national debt’"55 The rere immediate: unemployment, reduced lecline in prices, postponed expansion, ent of foreign trade. Breadlines, "the cs like a man” in Heywood Broun s e. began to form.8* Reginald Marsh’s Ao i (not in exhibition), which appeared in , depicts one such worm. Marsh’s title . Jonathan Norton Leonard’s mordant Three Years Dcnen (1939): "All of them {the ] were hungry and many were dying of rial diseases which enable welfare authonlat no one has starved.”87 acks rose briefly in the early months of they began the long descent that continreached their nadir in 1932. In March, York State Industrial Commissioner t unemployment had reached its highest state had begun collecting statistics tn : this evidence, many otherwise well riduals did not comprehend, or chose to lousness of the problem: In a poll conNational Economic League in January mts rated unemployment eighteenth iramount problems” facing the nation.' □und provides the context for the events >30. when Union Square witnessed the '-mis! demonstration ever held in New stimates of the size of the crowd varied w t 34 B«ty Waldo Parish Square Rally, <■■ 1935-1945 «<hing.7% / 9V< Courtesy of Sylvan Cole < lallery, New York ’ by Professional Photographs Servins �n ! from 35 ooo to 100,000. The rally had been called by the Third ‘international to focus attention on International Unemployment Day. At a meeting with representatives of the Communist Party, Police Commissioner Grover Whalen stated that the rally was illegal since a permitt he allowed the rally had not been obtained. Nonetheless, 1-----to proceed on the condition that it terminate by 1 p.m. When the deadline approached, however, the crowd began to march out of Union Square toward City Hall. Commissioner Whalen thereupon ordered his pohee to fall upon the marchers and a bloody riot ensued—“the worst disorder New York had seen in many years.”’1 Peter Hopkins and Edward Laning responded to this disorder; Hopkins, painting seventeen years after the event, sought to capture the tumult and chaos in his Riot at Union Square, March 6, 1930 (Cat. no. 26). Laning, on the other hand, depicted a preternatural stillness in his Unlawful Assembly, Union Square (Cat. no. 29), whose composition is clearly indebted to a photograph that appeared in The New York Times.91 The riot did have one positive consequence: It “galvanized the public against police interference, and under pressure, city officials guaranteed the right to free assembly in the square.”93 Throughout the 1930s, Union Square was the undis­ puted "center of America’s radical movement,”” Head­ quartered in the area were numerous radical publicationsthe New Masses and the Daily Worker among the most prominent-and oiganizations-including the John Reed Club and the Communist Party.95 Demonstrations became a way of life in the square and artists including Leonard Pydak (May Day [Cat. no. 38]), Louis Lozowick (Demonstration [Cat. no. 30]), Betty Waldo Parish (Union Square Rally [Cat. no. 36]), Albert Potter (Parade in the Park-Union Square Demonstration [Cat. no. 37]), Ben Shahn (May Day [Union Square Demonstration] [Cat. no the sJecTPhael 50761 (nC Cr0Wd [CaL n°- 42]) treated loi±? unemPloH men waited. They things to change. Finally L rh 41])’ hey Waited for up in anticipation of World WaiiV°n°?y began t0 heat The end of the thirties signal/} C°"dlt]Ons ^proved. attitudes. The United States^nvV ChaDge “ Ameri«n and the authorities discourage the square’s former Now permission for meetings in the square is rare1- Today, Union Square seems best known far farmers’ market. The heritage of long-past Struggle f c_ romninc rsnlv in flip irnnnorir,!-,. _ r r-*~ ~ freedom remains only in the iconography of shared by all the major monuments in Unir ' 'ai’ i°n Square NOTES 1. Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History ofthe America, o (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965): 268. ' ' Wflc 2. Edward Robb Ellis, The Epic ofNew York City: A NarratiHistory (New York: Old Town Books, 1990): 11. 3. Ibid., pp. 18-19. 4. Ibid., pp. 24-26. 5. Originally laid out by Peter Minuit’s engineer, Bowery ROai north-south artery, was named for the dozen farms (bouweria) that 3 were nearby. Broadway, originally an Indian warpath, was also know as High Street and Bloomingdale Road. 6. Quoted in M. Christine Boyer, Manhattan Manners: Arcbiteaim and Style 1850-1900 (New York: Rizzoli, 1985): 10. 7. Quoted in Richard Hoe Lawrence, Harris D. Colt, and I. N Phelps Stokes, History of the Society of Iconophiles ofthe City oj New York and Catalogue ofIls Publications, With Historical and Biographical Noto, etc. (New York, 1930): 122. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. According to M.C. Boyer (Manhattan Manners, p. 11) the area became a public square in 1831; Lawrence, however (History oftht Society ofIconopbiles, p. 123) states that this occurred in 1839. The iron fence that surrounded the Square (illustrated in M.C. Boyer, Manhattan Manners, p. 46) was erected in 1835 and 1836. (Lawrence, History of the Society of Iconophiles, p. 122). The iron fence was removed in the 1870s (The W.PA. Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s New York [New York: Pantheon, 1982]: 200). The W.PA. Guide lo New York City incorrectly claims (p. 200) that the area did not officially become known as Union Square until the 1870s. 10. Quoted in Lawrence, History of the Society of Iconophiles, p. 122. 11. Paul Boyer reminds us that “Today, parks are so ubiquitous and familiar a feature of the urban scene that we give little thought.. to their social significance. Thus, it takes a considerable imaginative leap to realize that the park movement once had the force of a fresh social discovery that could arouse intense and passionate commit­ ment, and that its moral implications were carefully explored and debated by moralists, urban reformers, social critics, landscape designers, and municipal authorities alike” (Urban Masses and Mors! Order in America: 1820-1920 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978]: 236). 12. Norval White, New York: A Physical History (New York: Athenaeum, 1987): 42. 13. Ibid., p. 43. 14. Ibid., p. 44. 15. Thomas Bender, New York Intellect: A History oj IntdletlnALi1 in New York City, from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987): 216. 16. Maxwell Marcuse, This IVis New York.' A Nostalgic Pur,': ? Gotham in the Gaslight Era, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: LIM Press, 1 ' 225-229. 17. For a detailed studv. Bender cites lohn \\. Frick, Jr., -e, Rialto: A Study of Union Square, the Center of New YorksF:^ Theater District, 1870-1900" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York V > sity, 1983). 18. Bender, New York Intellect, p. 21b. 19. Ibid. , 20. Ellen Wiley Todd, Toe "New WernM'Revised: PammgFSPolitia on Fourteenth Street (Berkeley: University of’ 1993): 96, For a discussion of Hearn’s and S. Klein s. see pp- 36 29 Edward Laning Unlawful Assembly, Union Square, 1931 tempera on composition board, 14-/i * 36 Collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New ic Gift of Isabel Bishop Photograph Copyright C 1995; Whitney Museum of Anu �,;,e aut.'.c-r-tics discourage the square’s former uses. T perm.ssion for meetings in the square is rarely asked more rarely given.”4 ay, Union Square seems best known for its rs’ market. Tire heritage of long-past struggles for m remains only in the iconography of freedom, by all the major monuments in Union Square.’ ES amuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History oj the American People >rk: Oxford University Press, 1965): 268. idward Robb Ellis, The Epic ofNev York City: A Narrative New York: Old Town Books, 1990): 11. bid., pp. 18-19. rid., pp. 24-26. •riginally laid out by Peter Minuit’s engineer, Bowery Road, ju:h artery, was named for the dozen farms (houveries) that irby. Broadway, originally an Indian warpath, was also known Street and Bloomingdale Road. luoted in M. Christine Boyer, Manhattan Manners: Ardriteetn "1850-/900 (New York: Rizzoli, 1985): 10. Quoted in Richard Hoe Lawrence, Harris D. Colt, and I. N. tokes, History ofthe Society oflanwpbiles oftire City ofNev York liogoe ofIts PuHiatlions, With Historical and Biographical Notes, •York, 1930): 122. lid. >id. According to M.C Boyer (Manhattan Manners, p. 11) the line a public square in 1831; Lawrence, however (History ofthe 'Tarnopbila, p. 123) states that this occurred in 1839. The iron it surrounded the Square (illustrated in M.C. Boyer, tue Manners, p. 46) was erected in 1835 and 1836. (Lawrence. /'the Society ofIcoaopbiles, p. 122). The iron fence was removed 370s (Toe W.PA. Guide to Nev York City: The Federal Writers’ 'ride to 1930s Nev York [New York: Pantheon, 1982]: 200). Terr wide to Nev York City incorrectly claims (p. 200) that the area officially become known as Union Square until the 1870s. luoted in Lawrer.ee, History ofthe Society oj Iconopbiles, p. 122. aul Boyer reminds us that Today, parks are so ubiquitous Liar a feature of the urban scene that we give little thought.. r social significance Thus, it takes a considerable imaginative realize that the park movement once had the force of a fresh iscovery that could arouse intense and passionate commitr.d that its moral implications were carefully explored and by moralists, urban reformers, social critics, landscape rs, and municipal authorities alike” (Urban Masses and Moral America: 1520-1920 ‘Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 97s]: 236). s’orval White, Nev York-A Physical History INew York: eum, 1987): 42. bid., p. 43. bid., p. 44. fhonus Bender, Nev York Intellect: A History oj Intellectual Life Irri City, from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Ovn Time (New ihtd A Knopf, 1987X216. Vtardl Marcuse, This llis Nev York! A Nostalgic Picture of ire tn Gauign Era, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: LIM Press, 1969). for a detailed study. Bender cites John W. Frick, Jr., “The n Yudy of Union Square, the Center of New York’s First ■’ Drnrict, 1870-1906' ;Ph D. dissertation. New York Univer•13k Render, Nev Kri Intellect, p. 216. Tbdd. The “Nev Woman"Braised: Paintingand Gender ^^tetnlb Street (Bcrke^-. University of California Press, ' ‘ d“Q;ssion of Hearn’s and S. Klein's, see pp. 96-10°- I 29 Edward Laning Unlaujul As tmhly, Union Square, 1931 'empera on composition board, 147i * 36 ollection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York yft of Isabel Bishop Photograph Copyright "> 1995: Whitney Museum of American Art �21. Among the artists: who had Is'J'hiW-IW) 23. The composition th tatue Am„ pans tin, 2 P"*”1"'’’ part* Thc body of the horse was cast ^SS-X^ehness of 3/8 inches. The statue took ^/rSTa'ltus' and Walter E Trsnd, Statues ofNeu, York (New statue. New York Evening Tima (hereafter cited 7) U ‘T^Tfluly 5.1856): 1. A list of the subscriber appear in the NYET (Ibid.). The sponsors’ names were inscribed between the hooves” of the horse. (Tie Neu, York Times [Hereafter cited as ATT], July 11, 1930): 21). 27. Saltus and Tisne, Statius oj Nett, York, p. 28. 28. NYET (July 5,1856): 1. Subsequently, in the late 1860s, Henry K. Brown created a portrait statue of Dr. Bethune for Brooklyn s Packer Institute (Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America [New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968]: 156). 29. NYET (July 5,1856): 1. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid. 32. Ibid. Located on the Capitoline Hill atop a pedestal by Michelangelo, Marcus Aurelius (c. A.D. 165) is the only statue of its type to have survived from the ancient world. During medieval times it was believed to represent Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Other famous, but now lost, examples of the genre include monu­ ments to Trajan (Rome), Justinian (Constantinople), and Theodorus (which Charlemagne removed to Aachen after he was crowned Holy Roman emperor in 800). 33. Other stone medieval equestrian statues include thc Saint Martin in Lucca, the Otto I in Magdeburg, and the Bemabd Visconti in Milan (Charles Rufus Morey, Mediaeval Art [New York: W.W. Norton, 1942]: 295-296). 34. This was especially true for New Yorkers, who in gratitude for George Ill’s repeal of the Stamp Act, caused an equestrian statue of the king to be erected in the city’s Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway. Thc gilded lead statue, set on a massive pedestal, was dedicated on August 21,1770. Six years later, the citizens destroyed what had become a hated symbol of oppression. 35. Quoted in P. Boyer, Urban Masses, p. 80. 36. P. Boyer, Urban Masses, p. 75. 37. NYET(July 5,1856): 1. 38. Ibid. thc!»^?T(STe,?ber 17> I87°): 1 ACC°rdlng to y»rk Times Sass “"bilk" •“ 40. Ibid. 41. Ibid. 4i NJ7(Sr|,irml„.r 17, 18AI): . Is |i;l74',d ll'^ Sw‘'’’’/AV-W.p 10 47. AH (Apul ?r.. IKr,*,). x 48 Ibid I’ 156 49. Ibid. 50. Bartholdi’s best known work is the colossal Statu: .v p, (Liberty Enlightening the World), 1875-1884. For the ,tor. oj Liberty see Ellis. Epic, pp. 384-392. 51. Saltus and Tisne, Statues of Neu York, p. 32. 52. The statue was moved to its present location in A _-2l , NYT (August 7, 1929): 18. See also Saltus and Tisne. Stu; :■ '■ “ York, p. 32. 53. King, King's Handbook, p. 176. Also inscribed on thc plinth ls 54. Although Brown had made the Italian pilgrimage and indeed spent four years working first in Florence and then Rome, heb-camconvinced, especially after his return to New York in 1846, of the ' need to forge a truly American art. To this end he rejected continental neoclassicism in favor of American subjects rendered directly and' naturalisticly. Bartholdi, on the other hand, was a true inheritor of the European sculptural tradition. In his elegant Lafayette, one sees the sophisticated interplay of light and movement, the subtle surface relationships, the animating contrapposto, and the idealization that characterize that tradition. 55. Lewis Mumford, The Brovn Decades: A Study of the Arts in America 1865-1895, rev. ed. (New York: Dover, 1971): 2. 56. NYT (September 7, 1876): 1. 57. Ibid., p. 7. 58. Ibid. 59. William Marcy Tweed was arrested in December 1871. After his first trial ended in a hung jury, prosecutors successfully retried him, in November 1873, and obtained convictions on 120 counts. On appeal, his sentence was reduced to one year in prison and a $250 fine (Ellis, Epic, pp. 351-354). 60. Morison, Oxford History, pp. 733-734. 61. NYT(October 26, 1881): 8. 62. Ibid. 63. Ibid. Originally scheduled to be completed within two and a half years from the date of the commission contract, May 10,1877, the work dragged on until 1881. The sculptor's wife and infant served as models for the figural group. The standing child was a Stuttgart youth renowned for his “ideal grace of form.” The bronze statue was cast in Brunswick, Germany, at the G. Howaldt foundry (ibid.). 64. The pedestal is a highly polished red Swedish granite Three steps enable individuals to reach thc ornamental fountain basins (Ibid.). 65. “And now abideth faith, hope and charity._but the greatest of these is charity” (I Corinthians 13:13). Giving drink to the thirsty (symbolized by the bucket full of water) represents the second of the Six Mercies (Matthew 25:35-37). Since the fourteenth century. Charity has been personified as a mother with two (usually suckling) f r infants. 66. NYT (October 26, 1881): 8. 67. Ibid. 68. Ibid. 69. Ibid. 70. ATT (May 22. 1930): 1. The flagstaff was dedicated on It-.v 4,1930; the actual sesquicentcnnial had occurred in 1926. Chat.es Francis Murphy was a Tammany Hal, leader. 71. ATT (July 5, 1930k 1. 72. ATT (Mas 22, 1930): 1. 73. W.F.1 Guide, pp 202-203. 4. V)T(October 3. WStO; fl. 3. 75. Ibid. 76. Ibid. ' ’. flu- Union Square I'.rk Communitv Coalition. tbr exampfe had obieued to the add tion of a new statce. claiming that I’uion S.jy.v.c we e nor being maintained properly (A •* H. ,H \lu*:.'.ni< 'c.'vCx’< b'-. n KMiuoiHi $ :o :he p, Common for nuinteiun<e the Union Squire xutuarv (MT [October 3. $ C V?*; . p ;1 20 Ernest Fiene Lincoln Monument tn L lithograph, 13V., x 10-7 Collection of Woltganj Photograph by Profess! �best known work is the colossal Statue of Liberty eg 12.' U'criA, 1875-1884. For the story of the Statue , Epic, PP- 384-392. Tisne, Statues ofNao York, p. 32. was moved to its present location in August 192Q 929): 18. See also Saltus and Tisne, Statues ofXev ' i Handbook, p. 176. Also inscribed on the plinth is Irown had made the Italian pilgrimage and indeed ,-orking first in Florence and then Rome, he became dly after his return to New York in 1846, of the ily American art. To this end he rejected continental avor of American subjects rendered directly and tholdi, on the other hand, was a true inheritor of ptural tradition. In his elegant Lafayette, one sees nterplay of light and movement, the subtle surface animating contrapposto, and the idealization that radirion. ford, Til Beran Decades A Study oftie Arts in i, rev. cd. (New York; Dover. 1971): 2. mber 7, 1876): 1. iny Tweed was arrested in December 1871. After his a hung jury, prosecutors successfully retried him, I, and obtained convictions on 120 counts. On :e was reduced to one year in prison and a S250 i. 351-354). ford History, pp. 733-734. >er26,1881): 8. ally scheduled to be completed within two and a : date of the commission contract, May 10, 1877, m until 1881. The sculptor’s wife and infant served rigural group. The standing child was a Stuttgart >r his "ideal grace of form.’ The bronze statue was Germany, at the G. Howaldr foundry (ibid.). 1 is a highly polished red Swedish granite. Three duals to reach the ornamental fountain basins bideth faith, hope and charity-but the greatest of Corinthians 13:13). Giving drink to the thirsty e bucket full of water) represents the second of the tew 2535-37). Since the fourteenth century, tersonified as a mother with two (usually suckling) ter 26, 1881): 8. 22,1930); 1. The flagstaff was dedicated on July sesquicentennial had occurred in 1926. Charles as a Tammany Hail leader. i, 1930): 1. 22, 1930): 1. it, pp. 202-203. her 3. 1986): fl, 3. Square Park Community Coalition, for example, te addition of a new statue, claiming that the other rues were not being maintained properly {NYT (July hmani silenced this objection by donating an 90 to the Parks Commission for maintenance of al! : statuary (ATT [October 3,1986]: II, 3). •■!. C. Boyer, Manhuiatt Manners, p. 85. �’-Sfc 'Uhln f^c°' ih^rW^rst^^U| 1,0 “' ■'■nen, L°pyngh, ?uev an *1*. i �rd the Pho‘ograph’s i. on Square That Wj, •’ !, 1958): 72. hagf Isabel Bishop At the Ban ofthe Flagpole (Idle Conversation), 1928 etching, 5x6 Collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Felicia Meyer Marsh Bequest Photograph Copyright & 1995: Whitney Museum of American Art ���? f ! I I < i I j 3 Isabel Bishop S-.-.'B-ti 1933-1934 oil on paper mounted on fiberboard 1 ?' , Codeoion or Hir-.-j-.r-: :;■ Gift ofJoseph H Hirshhorr, .-:r Photograph by Lee $u;sworh 44 _•. ■. I ��£**>«•** B J ofix:! Phbyp, I g-*!**'1 Bn ^ofKG 46 �J V I i f - i 7 'opposite) Isabel Bishop ^MArian Stall", Unton Square, c. 1927-1931 graphite, 10s/a x 77. Counesy of DC Moore Callery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 8 47 Isabel Bishop G,rls Sitting j„ Union Square Fountain, 1936 and tempera on gesso panel, 16 * 14 "° ection of Mr. & Mrs. John Whitney Payson �' pi 3^ 11 (o/yvsfte) Isabel Bishop Mending, 1945 oil on fiberboard, 25 . x ifo- , Collection of National Museum of American Art, Smith Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation Photograph courtess National Museum of American Art babel Bishop the Street {Fourteenth Street}, 1931 etching, 47.* 10 >/. f c'lles.tion ot \X hitney Museum of American Art, New '1 eeiuia Meyer Marsh Bequest holograph Copyright 1995: Whitney Museum of An �na �< r* i 1 1 p.-^ * , «h i •< ■ c . ' .... » 1 I"---' I 1 I I ■ i ) 21 (<p/m) Mary Fife Txo Women with Childre etching, fe;/sx 4.4 Courtesy of Susan Telle Photograph by Professk 22 4 50 51 Eugene C. Fitsdi ^■'h Street C„,o„ Sljhan, “thograph, 9 x 15 Courtesy of Sylvan Col. ‘holograph byProfessk �21 (opposite) Mary Fife Two Women with Children Crossing the Street, c. 1925 etching, 67s x 47a Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 22 (above) Eugene C. Fitsch 14th Stmt Union Square, 1931 lithograph, 9 * 15 Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York Photograph bt Professional Photographic Services �23 Eugene C. Fitsch Ihumplorftd Union Square, 1936 lithograph, 9 * 13 Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 24 fe* * ph by p 53 �------ 1 �i' I'' | I 25 (above) Emil Ganso Metropolis, 1935 etching with aquatint and roulette, 1 l!/s * 15 Courtesy of Madeleine FortunofFFine Prints, Locust Valley, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 27 (opposite) Morris Kantor Farewell to Union Square, 1931 oil on canvas, 36'/> x 27'7s Collection of The Newark Museum Purchase 1946, John Cotton Dana Fund Photograph by Armen May 54 ��1 28 (above) Charles Keller Open Cut-6th Avenue Subway, 1938 lithograph, ll’ft * 14'A Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services 30 (opposite) Louis Lozowick Demonstration, 1937 lithograph, 14'/w x U'/i Collection of National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian institution Gift of Adele Lozowick Photograph courtesy National Museum of American Art 56 ��I I I I j * i V» '» . ' « | I? ( y./ Vv is J ' t t‘r w v» I I i I 37 Albert Potter Parade in the Park-Union Square Demonstratijn, < 1935 crayon and watercolor, 13 « 20‘r (sheet. Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York Photograph by Professional Photographic Services l-fon^rrj K - W"? / 4 *«y 58 59 �1 M* * < t ah 33 I eomrd !\tbk PJ..V. 19 is hthogrjph, 7' ■ G'.new ci .Vusii! ii,_. Phoiogriph bv .n, .\c* Ve.'i. r.•/: v:v. �A^A.'-' lit 111 III III I 1 •It If I I & f iGf * J< 4 M C, �■ ■L’ 99 « ■ ii IH «n �* II ■ 21 Mary Fife (1904-199' Tito Women with Cnda ■- , etching. 67< ■ 4/; Courtesy of Susan Teller CJiecki.ist or the exhibition .... < r 1 Isabel Bishop (1’0? 1988) I; 'v I'.,-.' qt the Flagpole (Idle < 'animation), 1928 etching. 5*6 t olliMion of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1 .-Ik ia Merer Marsh Bequest page 13 2 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) At the Noon Hour, c. 1932 tempera and pencil on composition board, 25 * 18 ’/s Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts James Philip Gray Collection J page 44 3 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Boot Black, 1933-1934 oil on paper mounted on fiberboard, 197/s* 17 Collection of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution Gift ofJoseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 4 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Vie Club, 1935 oil and tempera on canvas, 20 x 24 Private Collection 22 EugeneC. Fitsch (18’2-J9.’2 14th Street Union Square. 193! lithograph, 9 - 15 Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gal page *11 page 19 11 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Mending, 1945 oil on fiberboard, 25 7« * 167/. Collection of National Museum of Arn Smithsonian Institution Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation 23 Eugene C. Fttsch 1892-1972 Unemployed Union Square, 19 lithograph, 9 * 13 Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gal - • 12 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page 15 Noon Hour, 1935 etching, 7*5 Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilke, I JnivetIHlty Sordoni/Myers Acquisition Fund Purchase 24 Eugene CFitwh (18’2-1972 Unton Square, 1930 lithograph. 10 • 14‘« Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gal 13 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page 4? On the Street (Fourteenth Street), 1931 etching, 47/s * 107r Collection ofWhitney Museum of American Art, New York Felicia Meyer Marsh Bequest 25 Emil Ganso (1895-1941) Metropolis, 1935 etching with aquatint and ro Courtesy of Madeleine Fortt Locust Valley. New York 14 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Study of Lafayette, n.d. graphite, 103/s* 7'A (sheet) Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York 26 Peter Hopkins (b. 1’11) Riot at Union Square. Ma-rh t oil on canvas, 37 < 48 Collection of Museum of th< Gift of the Artist P*& 31 I 5 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page 45 Conversation, 1931 etching, 6*4 Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Gift of Helen Farr Sloan 15 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Union Square Looking East, n.d. graphite, 6Vz x S'/i Collection of Sordoni Art GalleryGift ofJudge Herbert W. Salus 6 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Dante and Virgil in Union Square, 1932 oil on canvas, 27 * 52V, Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Gift of the Friends of Art, 1971 16 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page' Union Square Looking East, Studyfor lirgf; and Da~:r. c 1’2" graphite, 4 * 5Vz Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York 7 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Equestrian Statue, Union Square, c. 1927-1931 graphite, lO’/iv * 7'A Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York 8 Isabel Bishop (1’02-1988) Girls Sitting in Union Square Fountain, 1936 oil and tempera on gesso panel, 16 * 14 < oiler tion of Mr. & Mrs. John Whitney Payson page 4 page 46 page 47 9 1 abci Bishop (1902-1988) W 33 Gul Sitting in Union Square Fountain, 1936 el1 lung, 5 /. » 4'/. ' -.'1 hoi- of Ih-Dw.iir Ail Museum. Wilmington Gib of Helen 1 nt Sloan 10 !■ >1 Bishop 1190? 1988) P.hn at t ,uutam, 19 |‘> (pnnit-d 1’85) lung 4 i. - i'/» Co > 7,1,'I,. I ,,|r ( ...llcy, N,w yo|t 42 17 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Virgil and Dante in Union Square-Study, 1’32 graphite, 13 * 26 Collection of Palmer Museum of Art. The Pennsylvania State University 18 Isabel Bishop (1902-1’88) Virgil and Dante in Union Squa\-S S'»d:.<, 1’32 graphite, 6'/a x 3'.k Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery. New Aork Page * 27 Morris Kantor (1896-1974) Farewell to Un a n Sj*w y. 193 oil or. canvas, 36 ' 27 • Collection of The New ark M Purchase 1946, John Cotton 28 Charles Keller (b. 1914) Open Cut-bth Avenue Sutra . lithograph. 1T-: * 14' a Courtesy of Suvan Teller Gal: page 4 29 Edward Lantng (1906-1’81) hl.-ivr--.-. L Squ tempera on composition boa Collection of Whitney Museui Gift of Isabel Bishop .•->11 30 Louis Lozowtck (18’2-1’73) DemonI’.” lithograph, 14 'll Collection of National Muset Smithsonian Institution Gift of Adele Lozownk 19 Henty Kirke Biown Blown (1814-1886) iXj- General («<>;«;. (>eneral Georg, WarAwy.'.w Washington ,>•.• .‘V Ho^ba 1___ (•, c. 1852 (cast 1’52) bronze model, 37' .• * 42‘ ■ * 12' . Collection of Yale University Ait Gallery, New Haven Given in Memory of Edmund Terry . B A 1837. EJnuu'J Roden.k line, B A 18’8, and Fliphalet Budtow deny. B \ 1888, by Miss Manon let rv 20 Imcst Fienc (18’4-1’65) I m,oln ll. ’ra";.m Union Squa ■ ■ I4'* Itthogiaph, 13’ < * It)1’. t olle.tion ot Wolfgang A Hei. I a., 3'* 31 George I uks (1867-1933) : . .. .. .11'. 1’33 oil on board, 16 * 20 i olle. non or Sordoni Art Gal Gitt o! Helen Farr Sloan 32 Reginald Maish (18’1-1’54! D; ,AtBd\ oft n:on Squ. etching, 6'9 Cour levy ot Sm lun Teller Galle 63 �21 Mary Fife (1904-1990) Two Women with Children Crossing the Street, c. 1925 /><<?<■ 50 etching, 67sx 41/, Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York noN !^41 fork K? 13 22 Eugene C. Fitsch (1892-1972) 14th Street Union Square, 1931 lithograph, 9 x 15 Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York 11 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page 48 .Mending, 1945 oil on fiberboard, 25 Vs x 167s Collection of National Museum of American .Art, Smithsonian Institution Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation 23 Eugene C. Fitsch (1892-1972) Unemployed Union Square, 1936 lithograph, 9 x 13 Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York 12 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page 15 Noon Hour, 1935 etching, 7 x 5 Collection of Sordoni An Gallery, Wilkes University Sordoni/Myers Acquisition Fund Purchase 24 Eugene C. Fitsch (1892-1972) Union Square, 1930 lithograph, 10 x 14V« Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York 13 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) page 49 On the Street (Fourteenth Street), 1931 etching, 47sx 103,'< Collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Felicia Meyer Marsh Bequest 25 Emil Ganso (1895-1941) Metropolis, 1935 etching with aquatint and roulette, 117s x 15 Courtesy of Madeleine Fortunoff Fine Prints, Locust Valley, New York 14 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Study ofLafayette, n-d. graphite, 107ix 77. (sheet) Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York 26 Peter Hopkins (b. 1911) Riot at Union Square, March 6, 1930, 1947 oil on canvas, 37 x 48 Collection of Museum of the City of New York Gift of the Artist r»?44 en, &19 2£r45 page 4 page 46 15 Isabel Bishop <1902-1988) Union Square Looking East, D-d. graphite, 6’i x 91/2 Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery Gift ofjudge Herbert W. Salus page 31 page . 27 Morris Kantor (1896-1974) Farewell to Union Square, 1931 oil on canvas, 36‘/s x 277s Collection of The Newark Museum, Purchase 1946, John Cotton Dana Fund page 51 page 52 Page 53 page 54 page 9 page 55 16 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) pa&el Union Square Looking East, Studyfar Virgil and Dante, c. 1927 graphite, 4 x 51.2 Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York 28 Charles Keller (b. 1914) Open Cut-6th Avenue Subway, 1938 lithograph, ll’/a x 141/. Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York 17 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Virgil and Dante in Union Square-Study, 1932 graphite, 13*26 Collection of Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University page 4 29 Edward Laning (1906-1981) page 37 Unlawful Assembly, Union Square, 1931 tempera on composition board, 147a x 36 Collection ofWhitney Museum of American Art, New York Gift of Isabel Bishop page 11 30 Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) page 57 Demonstration, 1937 lithograph, 14 7i« x 11 '/2 Collection of National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Gift of Adele Lozowick page 56 18 Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) Virgil and Dante in Union Square-3 Studies, 1932 graphite, 6!'z > 3‘. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York page 33 19 Henry Karke Brown (1814-1886) pag>- 27 General George Washingfan on Hoisdxuk, c 1852 (cast 1932) bronze model, 37:< ' 42‘5 ' 12G Collection of Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Given in Memory of Edmund Terr,-, B A. 1837, Edmund Roderick Terry, B.A. 1878, andEliphalet Bradford Terry, B.A. 1888, by Miss Marion Terry 31 George Luks (1867-1933) page 21 High Tide at Lilehow's, 1933 oil on board, 16 x 20 */» Collection of Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University Gift of Helen Farr Sloan 20 Ernest Fienc (1894-1965) Lincoln Monument in Union Square, 1935 lithograph, 13". z 107, Collection of Wolfgang A. Hei :rz 32 Reginald Marsh (1891-1954) page 42 Discussion (At Hase of Union Square Washington Statue), 1934 etc lung, 6'9 Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York page 39 63 34 Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952) Leaving the Shop, 1929 etching, 77s x 97, Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York 35 Edith Nankivell Union Square, 1935 etching and aquatint, 9'h x 11 Collection ofJohn Beck 36 Betty Waldo Parish (1910-1986) Union Square Rally, c. 1935-45 etching, 73/. x 97. Courtesy of Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York Page 25 Pagel page 35 37 Albert Potter (1903-1937) Parade in the Park-Union Square Demonstration, c. 1935 page 58 crayon and watercolor, 13 x 2OV2 (sheet) Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York page M Page 33 33 Reginald Marsh (1891 1-1954) Union Square, 1933 page 43 lithograph, I3‘/r x gi/2 Courtesy of Hatay Stratton Fine Prints and Drawings, Veto Beach, Forida 38 Leonard Pytlak (b. 1910) May Day, c. 1935 lithograph, 7Vi x 10 Courtesy of Susan Teller Gallery, New York 39 Ben Shahn (1898-1969) May Day (Union Square Demonstration), 1934 watercolor, 123/i x 87s Collection of Bemarda Bryson Shahn page 59 page 60 40 John Sloan (1871-1951) page 22 Fourteenth Street, The Wigwam, 1928 etching, 93/. x 7 Collection of Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Gift of Helen Farr Sloan 41 Isaac Soyer (1907-1981) Xgr 61 Employment Agency, 1937 oil on canvas, 34'/. x 45 Collection of Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art, New York Purchase 42 Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) The Crowd, c. 1932 oil on canvas, 257s x 227. Collection of Wichita Art Museum, Kansas page 1 43 Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) In the City Park, 1934 oil on canvas, 373/. x 391/2 Private Collection page 16 44 Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) On the Steps, 1930s watercolor and pencil, 9 x 7H Courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York pagf 29 �ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The -----Sordoni Art ----r Gallery thanks the lenders and spon.’ --------------for their generosity in making this exhibition rsnccrh possible. ... also thank James ■M.■ Dennis " ”. We and' Kathleen M. Daniels for their catalogue essay; Susan Teller and Sylvan Cole, Jr., who have been especially supportive and helpful; and John Beck, who designed the catalogue. Ja“}es Dennis, Lawrence Kuhar of Wilkes University and Nancy Krueger, my associate at the Sordoni A-r Gallery, read early drafts of my essay; I appreciate comments and insights. LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION ADVISORY COMMISSION John Beck Sylvan Cole Gallery, New York Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington Madeleine Fortunoff Fine Prints, Locust Valley, New York Forum Gallery, New York Wolfgang A. Herz Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution DC Moore Gallery, New York Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts Museum of the City of New York National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution The Newark Museum Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University Mr. & Mrs. John Whitney Payson Bemarda Bryson Shahn Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University Hatay Stratton Fine Prints and Drawings, Vero Beach, Florida Susan Teller Gallery, New York Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Wichita Art Museum, Kansas Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Two Private Collections Freddie Bittenbender Christopher N. Breiseth, Ph.D. Joseph T. Butkiewicz Marion M. Conyngham Molly Cornell Virginia C. Davis, Chair Stanley I Grand, Ph.D. Robert J. Heaman, Ph.D. Mary Jane Henry Keith A. Hunter, Esq. J. Michael Lennon, Ph.D. Melanie Maslow Lumia Theo Lumia Ken Marquis Constance R. McCole Hank O’Neal Arnold Rifkin Kim Ross Charles A. Shaffer, Esq. William Shull Helen Farr Sloan Andrew J. Sordoni, III Sanford B. Stemlieb, M.D. Mindi Thalenfeld Joel Zitofsky SOfS fL.* .2.-' SIG STAFF Director Stanley I Grand, Ph.D. Coordinator Nancy [.. Krueger Preparalor Lari W. Lehman Gallery Attendants Donna Bytheway Tom Harrington Sarah Karlavage Jennifer Plumbo Deborah Tibet �WILKES UNIVERSITY LIBRARY A A - &AfLC4C FS �" ■■ ■ rf t: � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Exhibition Programs, 1973-present Description An account of the resource Exhibition programs created by the Sordoni Art Gallery from 1973 to the present. Digitized by Wilkes University Archives interns, Zachary Mendoza and Sophia Kruspha. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Sordoni Art Gallery Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wilkes University Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Sordoni Art Gallery Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-present Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wilkes University retains copyright of these exhibition programs. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition programs, flyers, and calendars. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1996 January 21 Between Heaven and Hell: Union Square in the 1930's Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Isabel Bishop Henry Kirke Brown Ernest Fiene MaryFife Eugene C. Fitsch Emil Ganso Peter Hopkins Morris Kantor CharlesKeller Edward Laning LouisLozowick George Luks ReginaldMarsh Kenneth HayesMiller Edith Nankivell Betty Waldo Parish Albert Potter Leonard Pytlak Ben Shahn John Sloan Isaac Soyer Rachel Soyer James M. Dennis Kathleen M. Daniels Stanley I. Grand Stanley I. Grand Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996 January 21 - March 3 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Description An account of the resource Between Heaven and Hell is an exhibition dedicated to the art made about or during the 1930's depicting New York Ciy's famous Union Square. Featuring works on paper, paintings, and sculpture, this exhibition acts as a cumulative survey of American Art surrounding New York's vibrant history. Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition program Subject The topic of the resource NYC New York City Union Square thirties 1930s