The pitched roofs, overhanging eaves, curlycue flower petal motifs—is this really the entrance to the Third Avenue Elevated at 28th Street, or is it a house from a fairy tale?
Painted by Staats Cotsworth around 1940, this depiction of an ordinary train entrance feels fanciful, almost magical; the city itself is barely seen. Yet it also exhibits the fascination with urban geometric shapes and lines seen in many abstract paintings of the era.
It’s a tight composition, but Cotsworth creates depth and angles—see the staircases and the train tracks on the top left. There’s also a red vertical sign in the distance that spells out the first letters of “drugstore.”
The color palette of greens, blues, and rust create a luminous view of a utilitarian part of prewar New York. Elevated trains by the 1940s were considered gritty, noisy nuisances from another era. Yet there’s something enchanting about the el entrance in this painting.
Staats Cotsworth was a multitalented artist, making a living as a radio and stage actor while attending various art schools and exhibiting his work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Water Color Club in Philadelphia, according to Helicline Fine Art.
He died in 1979 in Manhattan, more than two decades after the Third Avenue El in Manhattan met its end.
[Painting: Artsy]