Chicago

Reginald Marsh's Depression-era watercolor Chicago presents a row of decayed wood-frame shop fronts along an almost deserted city street. A factory building, water towers, and an exhaust stack that extends beyond the top edge of the image loom behind the forlorn decorative facades of Victorian-era buildings. Skewed lines of utilitarian electrical wires crossing the view echo the oblique angles of the decrepit, slumping buildings behind them. A pale gray sky complements the melancholy tone of Marsh's image. Possibly working on site before his subject, the artist applied watercolor in rapid, casual lines and washes of drab color. In places he allowed the white of the unpainted paper to appear as highlights, and he evidently wet the paper along the bottom edge, where a line of dark watercolor subtly "bleeds" into a pale wash to suggest the curb where sidewalk meets street.

Better known for his dynamic representations of modern urban social types, Marsh was keenly sensitive to the built environment as the setting for their often tawdry dreams, appetites, and ambitions; he also made some purely architectural paintings. His 1930 visit to Chicago yielded several watercolor portrayals of the city, including scenes of old buildings as well as studies of industrial sites. Ignoring the architectural trophies that had recently sprung up along such bustling commercial thoroughfares as upper Michigan Avenue, Marsh focused on scenes that captured the anxiety and despair that followed the stock market crash of October 1929. In Chicago, the current woeful condition of the modest structures' false fronts and architectural flourishes suggests the glaring contrast between contemporary realities and the optimism and pretensions of a defunct era.

A departure from Marsh's usual focus on boisterous, animated figures, Chicago's antiquated architecture and mood of quiet melancholy recall the silent, often mysterious images of Edward Hopper, such as his Dawn in Pennsylvania (TF 1999.77). In contrast to Charles Turzak's color print scene of the city's busy theater district, Randolph Street (TF 1996.45), Marsh's work presents a thoroughly unsung face of the city, anticipating a similar approach in Chicago painter Francis Chapin's watercolor City Scene (TF C1994.23).

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 14–December 31, 2000.

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape.  Terra Foundation  for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art,  May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]

The Left Front: Radical Art in "the Red Decade," 1929–1940,  Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer) Venues: Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois, January 17–May 22, 2014; Gray Art Gallery, New York University, New York, New York, January 13–April 4, 2015. [exh. cat.]

In the Streets: Modern Life and Urban Experiences in the Art of the United States, 1893-1976 (Pelas ruas: vida moderna e experiências urbanas na arte dos Estados Unidos, 1893–1976). Terra Foundation for American Art and Pinacoteca de São Paulo (organizers). Venue: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, August 27, 2022–January 30, 2023. [exh. cat.]

     

Sotheby's New York, New York (September 24, 1998): lot 237.

Brownlee, Peter John.  Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008.  Text p. 37 (checklist).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 212; ill. p. 212 (color).

Piccoli, Valéria, Fernanda Pitta, and Taylor Poulin. Pelas ruas: vida moderna e experiências urbanas na arte dos Estados Unidos, 1893-1976. (exh. cat., Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and Terra Foundation for American Art). São Paulo, Brazil: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, 2022. Pl. p. 70 (color).