Ernest Lawson

Provenance

Collection of Ferdinand Howald (see inscription)
Private Collection, Germany

In this scene of everyday urban life, a subject typical of his fellow Ash Can School artists, Ernest Lawson has captured the sensation of a wintry late afternoon in Washington Square Park. The rough-hewn nature of the artist’s brushwork, with its thin structure of subdued hues over-painted with spontaneous buttery strokes, creates a sense of shimmering light and motion seen in the lacy tree limbs, the receding omnibus, and pedestrians picking their way through the melting snow. Bathed in a golden, nostalgic light, this turn-of-the-century scene of old New York is a tapestry of color and form.