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Reginald Marsh is an American painter, known for his illustrative scenes of New York. Marsh was born, and spent the first two years of his life in Paris, France, before relocating to Nutley, New Jersey. Marsh was raised in a family of artists, his mother painted miniatures and his father painted industrial subjects.

20th Century Movie Four Girls and a Man on the Boardwalk, 1949 East 10th Street Jungle, 1934

Marsh was fortunate enough to study at Yale University in Connecticut. At Yale Marsh studied art and was praised for his illustrations in Yale publications. After graduating in 1920, Marsh went directly to work as an illustrator for the New York Daily News, the New Yorker and the Marxist publication, New Masses.

sketch book page the Bowery Manhattan Skyline

Marsh did not focus on fine art painting until around 1923, after a trip to Paris. Marsh was greatly inspired by art in Europe, particularly the paintings housed at the Louvre.

Tunnel of Love Along the Waterfront Stokey’s Bar on the Bowery

When Marsh returned to the United States he studied painting in New York at the Art Students League. Marsh’s instructors included John Sloan and George Luks of the Ashcan School and Kenneth Hayes Miller. At this time, Marsh did fewer commercial projects to focus on his painting career. In New York Marsh befriended John Steuart Curry, and the two soon began painting together.

Locomotives, Jersey City Atlantic Liner in Harbor with Tug Why not use the “L” Usherette

Marsh is often referred to as painting in the genre of “social realism” Marsh tried to capture scenes across social classes and boundaries, promoting the need for social change.

Marsh’s social conscious stance towards art making was particularly important as he worked through the Great Depression. The streets of New York were filled with people living in absolute poverty, as well as workers and performers trying to get by on very little. Marsh sometimes painted the bourgeois and lower class together in the same composition to show the gap between people living in the same city.

Marsh also frequented Coney Island, a well-known beach and amusement park in Brooklyn, New York. Marsh loved painting the crowds of sunbathers and circus-like performers that flocked there during hot summers.

Marsh’s work is now in major museums and collections across the United States. Marsh is an important Depression-era, American artist. Do you think you own a painting by Reginald Marsh? Contact us. We are the experts on Reginald Marsh.