Triboro Follies
Artist
Reginald Marsh
(American, born France, 1898 - 1954)
Date1939
MediumWatercolor, gouache, and ink over graphite on paper
DimensionsUnframed: 22 1/4 x 30 1/8 inches (56.52 x 76.53 cm)
Framed: 29 3/4 x 37 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches (75.57 x 95.58 x 6.35 cm)
Framed: 29 3/4 x 37 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches (75.57 x 95.58 x 6.35 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Diana Reid Hearne James
Object numberF97-29/1
Signedl.r.: TRIBORO FOOLI/REGINALD/MARSH 1939
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThe watercolor shows a male audience watching a burlesque performance in an ornate theater. On the left, overarched by a heavy curtain, is the stage on which a number of semi-nude women stand and sit while one performs acrobatics. At upper right one sees the curved, highly-decorated upper-tier theater boxes. Below them is an orchestra-level box jam-packed with spectators. The heads of other audience members, some seen from the rear, are depicted in the foreground.Exhibition HistoryAmerican Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918-1939, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, July 9 2022–January 8 2023, no cat.
Best known for his scenes of the underbelly of urban American life, especially in New York, Reginald Marsh frequently depicted the subject of burlesque. Triboro Follies reveals the artist's love of this extravagant, bawdy spectacle. With undulating forms and alluring colors, the composition is filled with scantily costumed, voluptuous women on a stage in front of a large audience of men leering from the shadows. The opulent theatre, suggesting sophistication and high class, serves as an ironic setting for the unapologetically lowbrow nature of the show. Because New York authorities banned burlesque in 1937, the scene likely refers to performances in a neighboring borough or to the good old days in Manhattan before the ban.
Copyright© Estate of Reginald Marsh / Art Students League, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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