New York from a Seaplane
“New York from a Seaplane” depicts a sun-dappled aerial view of lower Manhattan with such recognizable landmarks such as the Woolworth Building and the Brooklyn Bridge. The architecturally-dense foreground gives way to the winding East River, whose far bank meets the indistinct, blue-tinted landmass of Brooklyn and Queens that recedes into the distant skyline. The wing tip of a sharply-turning Boeing C plane is visible in the upper left corner. Warner was flown in Navy planes over New York City and along the eastern seaboard every day for approximately one month in 1919 shortly before decommissioning from military service after World War I. He created several dozen small oil sketches that he then used as fodder for enlarged finished paintings and pastels. “New York from a Seaplane” is the only extant work from Warner’s aerial views of Manhattan, as he destroyed many of them later in his career and others were lost in a studio fire. This pastel shows an indebtedness to his affiliation with the Old Lyme art colony where beginning in 1909 he worked in an impressionist aesthetic alongside Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, and others. Warner’s simulation of sparkling light on architectural forms, with short strokes, shown from a daring angle yields a novel marriage of American Impressionist techniques with modern compositional boldness.
Artwork Details
- Title: New York from a Seaplane
- Artist: Everett L. Warner (American, Vinton, Iowa 1877–1963 Bellow Falls, Vermont)
- Date: ca. 1919
- Culture: American
- Medium: Pastel on paper adhered to board
- Dimensions: 14 in. × 11 5/8 in. (35.6 × 29.5 cm)
Frame: 23 1/2 × 20 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (59.7 × 52.7 × 3.8 cm) - Credit Line: Purchase, Dorothy Schwartz Gift, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.4
- Rights and Reproduction: © Everett Warner Archives
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Samuel Johnson Woolf
ca. 1932
Henry François Farny
1906
John Singer Sargent
1912
Mary Sully
ca. 1920s–40s
Mary Sully
ca. 1920s–40s
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.