20 South Street

The same year he painted 20 South Street, Reginald Marsh asserted: "Watercolors give clarity, and allow for better drawing." Marsh had spent the 1930s using both egg tempera and watercolor. By the end of the decade, however, he preferred watercolor for representing gritty, urban scenes, due to the "better drawing" he felt it promoted. Watercolor facilitated painting the heavy lines that define both the loitering group of former sailors and the lettering on the buildings. Working in his studio from sketches and photographs made throughout New York City, Marsh produced large-scale figural watercolors like this one.