Jefferson Market, New York

1930

Not on view

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Davis expressed an interest in depicting his surroundings, finding inspiration in the trappings of the cityscape. In Jefferson Market, New York, Davis compresses symbols of urban infrastructure—lampposts, railings, elevated train girders, pedestrian underpasses, chimney rows, a skyscraper—into a spatially complex, collagelike painting that depicts a bold, metropolitan space. The clock tower in the distance identifies the scene as the area in Greenwich Village known as Jefferson Market, where a courthouse (with a clock tower) was built in the 1870s. The looming shadow of a much taller skyscraper in the background portends New York’s continual urban transformation.

Artwork Details

Title: Jefferson Market, New York
Artist: Stuart Davis (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1892–1964 New York)
Date: 1930
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 33 1/4 × 22 1/8 in. (84.5 × 56.2 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Carl D. Lobell, 1996
Object Number: 1996.546
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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