Scrapyard

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Artist/Maker Reginald Marsh (American, 1898 - 1954)

Date1933

MediumWatercolor on paper

DimensionsSheet: 13 15/16 × 19 7/8 in. (35.4 × 50.5 cm) Frame: 22 7/8 × 28 7/8 × 2 in. (58.1 × 73.3 × 5.1 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Harry D. Yates, Class of 1925

Object number1997.5

Not on view

DescriptionReginald Marsh was raised in New Jersey and, after graduating from Yale University in 1920, moved to New York City. There, he worked as an illustrator for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He was drawn to the carnivalesque aspects of the city, and his work often featured scenes from vaudeville shows, burlesque houses, Central Park, and Coney Island. At the same time, he depicted downtrodden parts of the city such as the Bowery, the waterfronts, and the subway, documenting the effects of the Great Depression. On account of such subjects, Marsh was considered an Urban Realist painter, one of a number who depicted aspects of the modern city in the early decades of the twentieth century. This composition, created four years after the crash of the stock market, depicts a scrapyard with railroad tracks in the distance, most likely in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or nearby New Jersey. In the late 1920s, Marsh had executed a number of paintings of trains. Here, they serve as a backdrop to the mechanical detritus seen in the foreground. Harry D. Yates, Class of 1925, was New York State’s comptroller from 1932 to 1942 and a trustee of Hamilton College from 1965 to 1971. Yates was dedicated to the arts, assisting in the creation of the Root Art Center and serving as a trustee of the Albany Institute of History and Art. Yates donated Scrapyard to Hamilton College in 1997, thirty-one years after he first lent it to an exhibition held at the Root in 1966. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 70, illus.);

2012-13
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Affinity Atlas," October 6, 2012 - April 7, 2013 (brochure);

2007
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Highlights from the Permanent Collection," February 19 - April 15, 2007(no cat.);

2005
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Hamilton Collects, A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat., illus., 25);

1989
Utica, NY (Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art). "The Art Triangle," March 19 - April 30, 1989 (cat. p. 69);

1966
Clinton, NY (The Edward W. Root Art Center, Hamilton College). "Hamilton College Alumni Collectors," May 8 - June 5, 1966 (no cat.).

Provenance 1997: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by bequest of Harry D. Yates;
by 1989 - 1997: Harry D. Yates.

Markings None noted.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 168;

A CENTURY OF CURIOSITIES: THE STORY OF THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION (exh. cat., Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, September 29- December 30, 2005, unnumbered cat.).

Signature Signed and dated "REGINALD MARSH '33" at lower right corner in watercolor.

Inscribed None noted.