Gouache and pencil on paper, 1950. 312x410 mm; 12 1/4x16 1/8 inches. Signed and dated in black ink, lower right recto, and inscribed "Study of N.Y. #3" and dated "7-8-50" in pencil, verso.
Ex-collection The Downtown Gallery, New York, 1950 (The Downtown Gallery, invoice number 1580, December 7, 1950, item number 92, Charles Sheeler, New York, 1950, tempera, $360.00, sold to Charles Friedman, New Rochelle; private collection, Palm Beach, thence by descent; Richard York Gallery, New York, January, 1999-2000, with the label on the frame back and a copy of the original receipt, acquired from above by the current owner.
Exhibited Linda Hyman Fine Art, New York, with the label on the frame back.
Sheeler (1883-1965) was among the foremost early American modernist artists. Born and educated in Philadelphia, he was heavily influenced by Cubism after a visit to Paris in 1909. In the following decades, Sheeler became increasingly involved in the New York art scene, working with Alfred Stieglitz, exhibiting in important exhibitions such as the 1913 Armory Show and developing his Precisionist visual style.
The current lot is characteristic of Sheeler's work around 1950, which reduced objects and buildings to colorful, planar forms. The scene portrays an abstracted Rockefeller Center, with attention paid to the shadows on 30 Rockefeller Center (at left) and the International Building (center). Around this time, Sheeler both painted and photographed Rockefeller Center repeatedly. This study relates both to his oil painting of the same subject, New York No. 1, private collection, and to his 1950 photograph, Rockefeller Center (see image below).
