Painter Jack Lubin, born in New York in 1907, might be best known as an abstract-style muralist.
Two murals this WPA artist painted in a garment district building were removed by developers in 2011, and a mural he completed in 1956 in the Statler Hotel in Dallas was rediscovered and restored in 2012.
In 1938, he painted this magical nocturne of an elevated train in a noir-ish nighttime New York, capturing the yellow light from inside the train and apartment windows, as well as the blue glow of the sky in a Manhattan that even on a moonless night never goes black.
The painting looks like a dream—what I wouldn’t do to travel back into that scene and experience the screeching and rumbling of an elevated train gliding three stories over the sleepy city!
[Painting: Smithsonian American Art Museum]
Tags: 1930s Painters New York City, Jack Lubin Nocturne Elevated Train, Jack Lubin painter, Jack Lubin Smithsonian, Jack Lubin WPA Painter, New York in the 1930s, WPA painter NYC
Ephemeral New York 
September 28, 2020 at 11:30 am |
[…] Source: FS – NYC Real Estate An elevated train ride through the nocturnal city […]
September 28, 2020 at 10:53 pm |
[…] Nocturne (1938), Jack Lubin […]
September 29, 2020 at 9:04 am |
Great description of this painting. Even though we live in a different time, the City mood may be the same. Art has changed so much.
October 1, 2020 at 7:05 pm |
What a wonderful painting! One thing I read about the EL train line from newspaper articles written during the construction of the subway system, was that it created such a sooty mess for the people down below and left a fine layer on everything, their clothes, and hats, awnings. The apartments across the way couldn’t keep their windows open. They found themselves sweeping soot and dust out many times a day.
October 1, 2020 at 8:16 pm |
I’ve read the same thing about all the dust and grime. Apparently wealthy people back then changed clothes multiple times a day in the 19th century, and I’m sure this was one reason why!
October 5, 2020 at 3:39 am |
[…] week, Ephemeral New York created a post around a moody, magical nocturne of an elevated train on the move in 1938 Manhattan. The artist is Jack Lubin, a WPA painter whose […]
October 5, 2020 at 9:53 am |
Want to imagine 3rd, 6th, and 2nd Avenues before their Els were demolished?
Walk up 9th Avenue…most of it did NOT see its real estate replaced.