Blanche M. Grambs, WPA/Federal Art Project, New York City
Street Scene from Elevated Station
1938
Scroll
Blanche M. Grambs, WPA/Federal Art Project, New York City
Street Scene from Elevated Station
1938
Physical Qualities
Etching and aquatint with roulette and hand coloring, Sheet: 277 x 393 mm. (10 7/8 x 15 1/2 in.)
Image: 229 x 302 mm. (9 x 11 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
The United States General Services Administration, formerly Federal Works Agency, Works Progress Administration, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Object Number
L.1943.9.233
This print offers three views of a transportation system in flux. By the mid-1930s, elevated train lines had dominated New York City’s skyline for over 60 years, blocking out the sun in working-class neighborhoods. By the time Blanche Grambs made this focused study of the elegant, 19th-century ornament on a train platform, “el” lines in the New York City borough of Manhattan were being demolished in favor of an expanded underground subway system. Those same swirls of wrought iron also appear in Margaret Lowengrund’s bird’s-eye view of commuters and passers-by. Taking a different approach, Claire Mahl Moore presented a titanic hand emerging from the city to grasp the elevated train.
Extended Loans IN
Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA
Inscribed: RECTO: LL margin (stamped in black ink): 'FEDERAL ART PROJECT / NYC WPA'; LC margin (pencil): 'Street scene from Elevated Station'; LR margin (pencil): 'grambs'; BR Corner (pencil): '14'. VERSO: LR: (pencil): '#1696 - gr. I'; L Ctr: BMA stamp.