Election Banner – Twenty-third and Broadway

Date1903

Maker Everett Shinn born Woodlawn, New Jersey, 1876; died New York City, New York, 1953

Label TextShinn exhibited with urban realist artists who were popularly disparaged for their gritty "ashcan" subjects. Yet Shinn's subjects were often elegant when his comrades' work was not. Shinn loved the theater and public spectacle. He relished making brilliant pastel paintings of the kaleidoscopic world of the stage and the street. Shinn greatly advanced the art of pastel drawing—more commonly called "painting" in his day—which saw a surge of revival in America beginning in the 1880s, and in this respect his art seems closer to that of late nineteenth-century artists. Yet his subjects are thoroughly of his day, and often in Shinn's art, his elegant handling of the pastel medium can make us forget that he is addressing the dark side of urban life.

Object number2005.165

ProvenanceEstate of the artist, to [James Graham & Sons, New York]; sold to private collection, Philadelphia; sold to [James Graham and Sons, Inc., New York]; sold to donor

Photo CreditPhoto: Susan Cole

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Exhibition of Pastels by Everett Shinn, Mar. 2-16, 1904. Cat. no. 14 [as Election Banner-23rd Street and Broadway]. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 150th Anniversary Exhibition, Jan. 15-Mar.13, 1955. Cat. no. 225. {New York, James Graham and Sons, date unknown, cat. no. 18}. New York, James Graham and Sons, Everett Shinn, Feb.1958. Cat. no. 21. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Henry Clay Frick Fine Arts Department, Everett Shinn-An Exhibition of His Work, Feb. 25-Mar. 28, 1959. Cat. no. 15. Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5-Sept. 9, 2007. No catalogue. Published References"Some Pastels by Shinn." New York Times, March 12, 1904: pp. 9, 3-4. DeShazo, Edith. Everett Shinn, 1876-1953: A Figure in His Time. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1974; p. 55. Junker, Patricia. "New York Stories." A Community of Collectors. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2008; p. 200, illus. fig. 169.

Credit LinePartial and promised gift from a private collection

Dimensions23 x 15 1/2 in. (58.4 x 39.4cm)

MediumPastel on paper