CHRISTOPHER RICHARD WYNNE NEVINSON, A.R.A. | Third Avenue, Elevated Railway

Gifted by the Artist to Martin Doyle by whom gifted to the grandmother of the present owner

The sheet is adhered to the mount with two tabs of adhesive tape along the upper edge. There is a small nick to the extreme upper left corner with some associated loss and a very minor crease, not visible in the present mount. There are scattered small flecks of foxing to the sheet, a small number of instances of studio detritus in places, some light surface dirt and some general time staining. Subject to the above, the work appears in very good overall condition. The work is window mounted. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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New York City was the birth place of the elevated railway in 1870, the first urban rapid-transit system in the United Sates.  The need to move scores of people between the business districts in southern Manhattan and the newly emerging neighbourhoods of northern Manhattan encouraged city leaders to develop a means of travel that was faster that the streetcar, but it was not without problems.  The stream trains were noisy, causing nearby buildings to shake, while people walking below the tracks were always at risk of being hit by falling ash, oil or cinder.  Nevinson's image explores the consequences of the technology by the imposition of pattern and order on the city street. The present work was probably executed during Nevinson's second visit to New York late October to early December 1920 for a solo show at the Bourgeois Galleries. There is a related oil painting which bears the same title and also a drypoint titles, Third Avenue, which was exhibited at the Friday Club in April 1921 and at Keppel Gallery, New York in July 1921.