This is 57th Street in 1902, painted by Robert Henri, whose Ashcan School work depicted a moody New York in all of its grit and glory.
Could the cross street with the elevated train be Sixth Avenue? It would have been close to the Art Students League, where Henri taught.
Tags: 57th Street Old Photos, Art Students League, New York 1902, Robert Henri Ashcan School, Robert Henri New York, Robert Henri Snow Scene 57th Street
Ephemeral New York 
February 12, 2018 at 8:21 am |
[…] Source: FS – Real Estate A winter twilight in the snow on 57th Street […]
February 12, 2018 at 4:18 pm |
Oh this is great! NYC is magic during heavy snows. (Aside from the difficulty for disabled & elderly getting round). Before it turns to our brand of clear grey slush. (Which seems to last longer than the snow itself).
My favourite snow memory is from when I first moved (permanently) to the City in December 1980 on my own. (Vs. staying uptown w/ my dad or downtown w/friends up till then). There was a heavy snowfall & my friends & I were walking downtown from East 6th St. to Venieros on 11th & got caught up in a communal snowball fight w/ total strangers our (young) age. ‘Stranger’ having a different connotation in this city!
February 12, 2018 at 4:21 pm |
*at night – as Veniero’s stayed open quite late.
February 13, 2018 at 5:34 am |
Veniero’s is still open late!
February 13, 2018 at 1:50 pm
❤️ Veniero’s! 🌙🌨🍰🍰☕️☕️☃️
February 12, 2018 at 5:06 pm |
Fantastic painting and that IS the 6th Avenue El.
February 13, 2018 at 1:36 am |
Lovely painting – but how do you know it’s 57th Street and not a brownstone block – leading to the Third Avenue El? Judith
February 13, 2018 at 5:35 am |
The actual title of the painting names it as 57th Street. But this could be looking toward 3rd Ave; it just doesn’t look as gritty as 3rd Ave would have, based on photos I’ve seen.
February 13, 2018 at 4:40 am |
That probably is 57th St looking west at 6th avenue. Here is a photo of 57th St in 1924 looking east from 6th avenue. Note the location of the church and the size and shape of the structure on the elevated rail.
https://get.google.com/albumarchive/116363262722377355677/album/AF1QipM62kFp_MkVFvPICMR-X6ceAxs_SdobyYkol4O3/AF1QipMVuqIubvrRmVwEcbbT_DeHqi5IzCMt3VbvuZUY
February 13, 2018 at 5:36 am |
Yes, this looks like it! And thanks for the article that references Henri.
February 13, 2018 at 4:45 am |
Note also from the NY Times:
“Streetscapes/The 1880 Sherwood Studios, Once at 57th and Sixth; Building That Was ‘the Uptown Headquarters of Art'”
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY
AUG. 9, 1998
” […] John H. Sherwood, a bootmaker and banker turned real estate developer and art collector, was persuaded by the painter Frederic Church to build a new kind of studio building, one for artists ‘in receipt of sufficient income to live comfortably, even elegantly,’ as he told The New York Times in 1879.
“Sherwood’s solution was to build the first apartment house in New York City designed specifically for artists, a seven-story brick building, every one of the 44 apartments with a 15-foot-high studio and one or two bedrooms. For these were not bachelor working digs, but full-time residences for artists and their families.
“The location was significant, for 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues was emerging as an elite residential street, with big brownstone town houses and even mansions, like that of Cornelius Vanderbilt 2d at 57th and Fifth, where Bergdorf-Goodman now stands.
[…]
“Even if it had been a continual party ‘one can grow tired of a party every night,’ as Professor Davis observes, and he says the original cadre of residents began withdrawing from the Sherwood Studios hoopla after a decade or so, as newer tenants like Robert Henri moved in. […]”
February 21, 2018 at 9:08 am |
NICE!
February 21, 2018 at 4:01 pm |
Thanks Audrey! So you are getting these posts via email again? Let me know.
December 10, 2018 at 5:12 am |
[…] change, two moves (first to Fourth Avenue and 13th Street in 1904 and then to newly fashionable East 57th Street in 1926, at right), and a refocusing of the company’s […]