Elevated trains were the fastest mode of mass transit in the late 19th century. Lurching and groaning high above the sidewalks along almost all of New York’s avenues, they whisked people to work, to school, to the theater, to Central Park, to department store shopping—all for a nickel per ride.
At night, the elevated invited intrigue. Everett Shinn, former newspaper illustrator best known as a member of the Ashcan School of social realism painting, captures a moment at one end of a poorly lit all-male car in his 1899 work, “Sixth Avenue Elevated After Midnight.”
Tags: Everett Shinn Ashcan School, Everett Shinn in New York City, Everett Shinn NYC paintings, Everett Shinn Sixth Avenue El, Everett Shinn Sixth Avenue Elevated After Midnight, Inside an Elevated Train NYC
Ephemeral New York 
May 19, 2022 at 5:53 am |
what an interesting look into that time and how people got from place to place
May 19, 2022 at 7:20 am |
Great to have a brief look beyond Edward Hopper and see other fine examples of the Ashcan School. Thanks for pulling this out of the archives.
May 19, 2022 at 4:34 pm
I just came across it and really hit me—as Greg says below, there’s real energy to it.
May 19, 2022 at 7:50 am |
I believe this has After Midnight in the title, which would explain why only men are on the El. It’s a small sketch, and I wonder if there’s a painting of it somewhere.
May 19, 2022 at 4:35 pm |
Exactly, it’s “Sixth Avenue Elevated After Midnight.”
May 19, 2022 at 11:56 am |
Sitting with this image for a while, it has some real energy to it
May 22, 2022 at 9:16 pm |
Great painting….it really freezes the time period.