On the Harlem

Artist Ernest Lawson (American, born Canada, 1873 - 1939)

Dateca. 1910

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30 × 40 inches (76.2 × 101.6 cm)
Framed: 38 1/4 × 48 1/4 × 3 1/2 inches (97.16 × 122.56 × 8.89 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Albert R. Jones

Object number33-1598

SignedSigned lower right: e. lawson

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

American Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Winfield Public Schools, Kans., November 1940, no cat.

Winfield Public Schools, Kans., mid-June–July 1946, no cat.

The Great Eight, Des Moines Art Center Junior Museum, Iowa, October 13, 1963–January 5, 1964, no cat.

Nineteenth Century American Painting, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Mo., February 17– March 31, 1974, no cat.

The Seasons: American Impressionist Painting, Madison Art Center, Wisc., December 8, 1984– February 3, 1985, no. 26.

The Impressionists’ New York, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Alabama, November 6, 1994–January 8, 1995; Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, N.Y., January 28–March 26, 1995; Equitable Gallery, New York, May 13–July 15, 1995, unnumbered.

Gallery Label

Ernest Lawson's On the Harlem shows a view from Manhattan looking across the Harlem River towards the Fordham section of the Bronx. Despite painting with broken and layered brushwork, Lawson took enough care to render the large Webb's Academy and Home for Ship Builders at the right and the Catholic Orphan's Asylum at the left. Composed primarily of pale greens and earthy ochre tones, On the Harlem effectively conveys the frigid and austere conditions of winter.

Lawson was intimately connected with Kansas City. He received his first art training at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he met his wife Ella Holman. He returned to Kansas City to teach at various stages of his career.

Provenance

John Quinn, New York, by 1924;

(Effie Seachrest, Kansas City, Mo.);

Albert R. Jones and Mabel N. Jones, Kansas City, Mo.;

to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., 1933.

Published References

Frederic Newlin Price, Ernest Lawson: Canadian-American (New York: Ferargil, 1930), unpaginated (as Hospital Harlem River).

“In Gallery and Studio,” Kansas City Star, March 3, 1934, 4 (as On the Hudson).

“Liberal with Art,” Kansas City Star, January 1, 1936, 8.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts: Founders and Benefactors (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1940), 24.

The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 166.

Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 256.

George Shane, “The Visual Arts,” Des Moines (Iowa) Sunday Register, October 13, 1963, 2L (as On the Hudson).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 253.

Trent Myers, The Seasons: American Impressionist Painting, exh. cat. (Madison, Wisc.: Madison Art Center, 1984), unpaginated.

Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 137.

Christopher Payne, “Exhibit Showcases Impressions of New York,” Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, December 4, 1994, 11H.

William H. Gerdts, The Impressionists’ New York, exh. cat. (Rochester, N.Y.: Memorial Art Gallery, 1994), unpaginated.

William H. Gerdts, Impressionist New York (New York: Abbeville Press, 1994), 197–98 (reproduction is flopped).

Charles C. Eldredge, “Ernest Lawson’s Spain,” American Art 17 (Fall 2003), 86–88.

Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 376-78 (repro.), 2: 158 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 174 (repro.).

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