Department: Visual Art

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson is one of Britain’s most important 20th century artists. In May 1919 Nevinson visited New York for the first time. He was invited by The Frederick Keppel & Co gallery to exhibit his prints of the First World War. These attracted great interest in America. Nevinson fell in love with New York and made numerous sketches reflecting the diversity of the city. After he returned home to England he created a number of paintings including this one. Nevinson wrote ‘…New York, being the Venice of this epoch, has triumphed, thanks to its engineers and architects, as successfully as the Venetians did in their time... Where the Venetian drove stakes into his sandbanks to overcome nature, the American has pegged his city to the sky. No sight can be more exhilarating and beautiful than this triumph of man…’