Berenice Abbott
El, 2nd and 3rd Avenue Lines: Hanover Square & Pearl Street, Manhattan

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Artist Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991)American, 1898–1991

CultureAmerican

Titles

El, 2nd and 3rd Avenue Lines: Hanover Square & Pearl Street, Manhattan
from the series Changing New York

Date1936

PlaceNew York, New York, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 3/4 × 7 5/8 in. (24.8 × 19.3 cm)
Sheet: 9 15/16 × 8 in. (25.3 × 20.3 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, The Manfred Heiting Collection

Object number2002.504

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionInspired by Eugène Atget’s photographs of a disappearing Paris, Berenice Abbott set out in the early 1930s to chronicle the look and life of her native New York City. Her decade long project ultimately comprised more than 700 photographs carefully exposed with an 8-by-10-inch camera and culminated in her 1940 book Changing New York. In this image, the complex geometric patterns of the now long gone elevated train tracks and the shadows they cast convey the clatter and bustle of the city and create a nearly abstract composition of the sort much admired by the most advanced photographers of the interwar period.
ProvenanceManfred Heiting, Malibu, California; purchased by MFAH, 2002.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited in, "American Vision: Photographers from the East, Selections from the Manfred Heiting Collection purchased by the Brown Foundation for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from August 23-December 29, 2003.

Exhibited in, "New York, New York: Photographs from the Manfred Heiting Collection", at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from October 8 - March 9, 2003.

"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 15 October 2012 - 2 January 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Stamped in red, in a red rectangle, verso of sheet, upper center: FEDERAL ART PROJECT // “Changing New York” // PHOTOGRAPHS BY BERENICE ABBOTT

Stamped in red, verso of sheet, center: photograph // berenice abbott // 50 commerce st. // new york city

Inscribed in pencil, verso of sheet, lower center: "El” 2nd & 3rd Ave. Lines: // Hanover Sq & Pearl St. Manhattan // Neg #75A Code II A2f2 // 3/6/36

The photograph is unsigned.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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