“New York Public Library”

Original watercolor and gouache artwork of the New York Public Library mounted to board by Charles Cobelle. Signed lower right. Condition is very good. Circa 1960. The artwork is housed in a whitewash wood frame with grey/blue matting.
Overall framed measurements are 21 by 24 inches. Under glass. Provenance: A Charlottesville, Virginia collector.

Born in Alsace - Lorraine France in 1902, Charles Cobelle (born Carl Edelman) lived and painted in Paris until the late 1920's when he moved to the United States.
Cobelle earned his Bachelor's and his Master's degrees from the University of Munich and later studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He also studied privately with Marc Chagall and apprenticed in the studio of Raoul Dufy in Menton on the Riviera.
In the time before he moved to the United States, Cobelle had established himself as an artistic force in Europe and today is considered the last link to the great tradition of the Open Line School of Paris.

Cobelle had already become a U.S. citizen before the outbreak of World War II. In the United States his paintings were immediately sought after by galleries and private collectors alike. Throughout his long and prosperous career, Cobelle painted his favorite subjects; Paris street scenes, racetracks, regattas and casinos.
In addition to his mixed media paintings his work has graced the covers of many of this country's leading magazines and his murals have adorned the walls of many elegant residences, public buildings, fine hotels and restaurants.
Charles Cobelle passed away in 1994.

The Main Branch was built after the New York Public Library was formed as a combination of two libraries in the late 1890s. The site, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, is located directly east of Bryant Park, on the site of the Croton Reservoir. The architectural firm Carrère and Hastings constructed the structure in the Beaux-Arts style, and the structure opened on May 23, 1911. The marble facade of the building contains ornate detailing, and the Fifth Avenue entrance is flanked by a pair of stone lions that serve as the library's icon. The interior of the building contains the Main Reading Room, a space measuring 78 by 297 feet (24 by 91 m) with a 52-foot-high (16 m) ceiling; a Public Catalog Room; and various reading rooms, offices, and art exhibitions.
The Main Branch became popular after its opening and saw four million annual visitors by the 1920s. It formerly contained a circulating library, though the circulating division of the Main Branch moved to the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library in 1970. Additional space for the library's stacks was constructed under adjacent Bryant Park in 1991, and the branch's Main Reading Room was restored in 1998. A major restoration from 2007 to 2011 was underwritten by a $100 million gift from businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman, for whom the branch was subsequently renamed. The branch underwent another expansion starting in 2018. The Main Branch has been featured in many television shows and films.