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(American, 1866–1950)

Coney Island

1933
Oil on canvas
Overall: 28 1/4 x 40 1/8 in. (71.8 x 101.9 cm)
Frame: 35 7/16 x 47 7/16 x 4 3/8 in. (90 x 120.5 x 11.1 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1993.12
SignedLower left: HARRY ROSELAND/33 [underlined]
Interpretation
Seen from an elevated viewpoint, the broad beach at Coney Island, New York, is a sea of humanity in Harry Roseland's panoramic painting. The resort's famous boardwalk and attractions are far in the left distance, while the water itself is just glimpsed on the far right. They are separated by a suffocatingly dense crowd of faceless pleasure-seekers clad in swimming gear and equipped with towels, uniform rented folding chairs, and other paraphernalia, through which the sand underfoot barely shows. The crowd includes people of every age and size, but gender distinctions are blurred by the uniformity of the period's bathing attire, typically black and covering the upper body for men as well as women. The claustrophobic, anonymous congestion of Coney Island's beach as presented by Roseland stands in sharp contrast to the intimate focus on individual experience in Edward Henry Potthast's joyful paintings of children at the seaside in such examples as Ring around the Rosy (TF1992.58).

Born in Brooklyn, Roseland spent his entire life there painting portraits and works of genre (scenes of everyday life). But it was not until late in his career, around 1930, that he began to portray Coney Island, easily reached from his Fulton Street residence by subway beginning in 1920. By then, the lively, democratic culture of urban beach-going had become an important theme among the New York social realist painters dubbed the Ashcan School by a derisive critic. These artists, and others who carried on their spirit of social scrutiny, reveled in the hedonistic if somewhat abandoned behaviors of ordinary city folk on holiday. Having spent much of his career documenting everyday life by focusing closely on individual character types, in his Coney Island paintings Roseland adopted a bird's-eye perspective that reduces the typical beach-goer to a faceless, endlessly replicated type. This work hovers between affectionate humor and grim satire in its presentation of Coney Island as a place that simultaneously promises and thwarts personal freedom and pleasure.
ProvenanceThe artist
Mrs. E. Halper
Sotheby Parke-Bernet Galleries, May 24, 1972, lot 188
Private collection
Sotheby's, New York, New York, December 3, 1992, lot 125
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (agent), Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1993
Exhibition History
Visions of a Nation: Exploring Identity through American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, August 10, 1996–January 12, 1997.

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 10–July 1, 2001.

American Moderns, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 14–October 7, 2001.

Paris-New York, aller-retour. Une Modernité américaine en formation, 1875–1940. Oeuvres des collections de la Terra Foundation for the Arts et des Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (Paris-New York, Roundtrip. American Modernism in the Making, 1875–1940. Works from the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002. [exh. cat.]

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 15–October 31, 2007.

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2008.

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.]

Published References
Gerdts, William H. Impressionist New York. New York: Abbeville Press, 1994. Text pp. 195–96; pl. 156, p. 195 (color).

Harris, Neil et al. L'art américain: Identités d'une nation. Edited by Veerle Thielemans et Matthias Waschek. Giverny: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny; Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2005. Ill. p. 190, back cover (color). 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 pp. 181-182; fig. 6, p. 182 (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. Text p. 14, 114; pl. p. 116-17 (color).

 

There are no additional artworks by this artist in the collection.