Merry-Go-Round GIrl: A Double Sided Work

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954)
Lived/Active; New York
Merry Go Round Girl, ca. 1940
Signed (l.r.): Reginald Marsh (one side)
Watercolor ink on paper, housed in a custom free-standing double-sided frame.
29” x 21” (sight), 43” h., 35” w., 11” d. (base).
Over-all in excellent condition.
Provenance: Sotheby’s, New York, Fine American Paintings, 2005; The collection of Sanford L. Smith, New York.
Reginald Marsh is one of the best-known chroniclers of New York City life and he loved capturing the seedier aspects of the city as seen through his sketches and paintings. He was an obsessive explorer of the great metropolis. It was in places such as Coney Island, the burlesque parlors and dance halls of Fourteenth Street, the Bowery, the streets, and the subway that the Yale educated, financially comfortable Marsh found the subjects he was looking for. His work, widely acclaimed during his lifetime, can be found in major public and private collections throughout the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
This rare, double-sided drawing of a girl riding a carousel at Coney Island Amusement Park is a subject Marsh loved to paint and it certainly captures his fascination with everyday people.