Painter and Greenwich Village resident Cecil Bell captures a moody lightning storm on a New York summer night in 1938.
It may have been painted from his own apartment at 19 East Ninth Street. Bell, who studied under John Sloan at the Art Students League, liked to work from his rooftop, according to biographical information provided by the Museum of the City of New York, which owns the painting.
The tall apartment building on the left dwarfing the Village’s tenements and churches is One Fifth Avenue, erected in 1929 at the foot of Washington Square Park.
Tags: Art Students League, Cecil Bell, Greenwich Village artists, John Sloan, Museum of the City of New York, One Fifth Avenue apartment building, Storms in New York City, Summer in New York City
Ephemeral New York 
February 19, 2011 at 8:26 am |
I have copies of old press clippings about artist John Plumer Ludlum that state that he founded and was first President of the Greenwich Village Artists Association. Does anyone know anything about this artist? He did move to California in the late 1940’s.
June 24, 2011 at 3:43 am |
[…] The breeze must have felt good up there on the roof. Here’s another John Sloan rooftop. […]