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University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 8329031 Schleier, Merrill THE IMAGE OF THE SKYSCRAPER IN AMERICAN ART, 1890-1931 University of California, Berkeley PH.D. 1983 University Microfilms I nternEltiOnGll 300N.Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml48106 Copyright 1983 by Schleier, Merrill All Rights Reserved The Image of the Skyscraper in American Art, 1890-1931 By Merrill Schleier A.B. (City University of New York, City College) 1973 M.A. (University of California) 1976 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OR PHILOSOPHY in History of Art in the GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Approved: .. .^^4. .4:^A%... .<%%1r..%..(? ^3 j%r * ^nair^fi if Date DOCTORAL DECREE CONFERRED JUNE 31,1S83 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvi INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter I. THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO THE SKYSCRAPER, 1890-1917 12 II. ARTISTS, THEMES AND MODES OF REPRESENTATION, 1890-1917 37 Traditional Buildings and the Skyscraper Construction The Skyline The Financial District Nature and the Picturesque III. ALFRED STIEGLITZ, MODERNISM IN AMERICA AND A NEW VIEW OF THE SKYSCRAPER, 1890-1917 82 Stieglitz and the City The Periodicals Alvin Langdon Coburn The Celebration of the Single Skyscraper: The Flatiron, The Singer and The Woolworth The American Modernists: Marin, Weber and Walkowitz Duchamp, Picabia, Gleizes and New York Dada IV. SKYSCRAPER MANIA: THE DEBATE CONTINUES, 1917-1931 140 Aspects of Skyscraper Enthusiasm: Rationality and Transcendence Artists and Images Charles Sheeler and the Functional Skyscraper Margaret Bourke-White and Fortune Magazine The Utopians i Chapter V. THE AMBIVALENT AND NEGATIVE RESPONSE TO THE SKYSCRAPER, 1917-1931 188 The General Failure of American Values Artists and Images Strand and Mannahatta: Paradigm of Urban Ambivalence (1921) Death and Rebirth: Stella's New York Interpreted series (1922) The Ballet Skyscrapers (1926) Images of Removal and Disequilbrium VI. ARCHITECTURAL CONSIDERATIONS: THE IMPACT OF THE SET-BACK ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE SKYSCRAPER, 1916-1931 227 CONCLUSION 241 NOTES 248 ILLUSTRATIONS 3 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 455 ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. W. R. Leigh, Higher Than the Head of the Cross, c.1897. Illustrated in J. Lincoln Steffens, "The Modern Business Building," Scribner's 23 (July 1897), p. 39. Fig. 2. Joseph Pennell, The Four-story House, 1904. Illustrated in Frederick Keppel, Mr. Pennell's Etchings of N.Y. "Skyscrapers", New York: Frederick Keppel & Co., 1905, n.p., etching. Fig. 3. Joseph Pennell, Singer Building—Early Evening, c.1908. Illustrated in John C. Van Dyke, The New New York, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909, pi. 28, drawing. Fig. 4. Joseph Pennell, The City Hall and World Building, c.1908. Illustrated in Van Dyke, The New New York, pi. 8. Fig. 5. Alvin Langdon Coburn, St. Paul's Church and the Park Row Building, c.1905. Illustrated in Alvin Langdon Coburn, "Some Photographic Impressions of New York," Metropolitan Magazine 23 (February 1906), n.p., photograph. Fig. 6. Joseph Pennell, St. Paul's and Park Row Building, c.1908. Illustrated in John C. Van Dyke, The New New York, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909, pi. 30, drawing. Fig. 7. John Marin, St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's and Park Row Buildings, 1911, Watercolor on Paper, 9-3/8"x7-l/2", Estate of the artist. Illustrated in Sheldon Reich, John Marin: A Catalogue Raisonne and Stylistic Analysis, vol. 2, Tucson:University of Arizona Press, 1970, cat. 11.6 as Church and Other Buildings. Fig. 8. John Marin, Saint Paul's, Lower Manhattan, 1912, Watercolor on Paper, 18"xl4", Wilmington Society Of Fine Arts, Delaware. iii Fig. 9. John Marin, Saint Paul's, Manhattan, 1914, Watercolor on Paper, 15-7/8"xl8-7/8", Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Stieglitz Collection. Fig. 10. Childe Hassam, October Haze: Manhattan, c.1911. Illustrated in Annie Nathan Meyer, "A City Picture, Mr. Hassam's Latest Painting of New York," Art and Progress 11 (March 1911), p. 139, oil on canvas. Fig. 11. Joseph Pennell, A Hole in the Ground, 1904, Etching, ll-3/4"x8-7/8", Illustrated in Louis A. Wuerth, Catalogue of the Complete Etchings of Joseph Pennell, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1928, p. 118. Fig. 12. George Bellows, Pennsylvania Excavation, 1907, Oil on Canvas, 34"x44", Kidder, Peabody and Co., New York. Fig. 13. John McCutcheon, They Were Eating Dinner, c,1890's. Illustrated in George Ade, Stories of the Streets and of the Town, Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1941, p. 5, drawing. Fig. 14. Joseph Pennell, The Foundation—Building A Skyscraper. Illustrated in Joseph Pennell, The Great New York, Boston: Le Roy Phillips, 1912, pi. 16. Fig. 15. Alfred Stieglitz, Old and New New York, 1910, Photogravure. Illustrated in Camera Work, no. 36 (October 1911), p. 13. Fig. 16. Childe Hassam, The Hovel and the Skyscraper, 1904, Oil on Canvas, 25"x31", Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Potamkin. Fig. 17. Fred Pansing, The Sky-Line of Buildings Below Chambers Street as Seen From the Hudson River, 1897. Illustrated in Harper's Weekly 41 (March 20, 1897) , p. 292, drawing. Fig. 17a. Fred Pansing, New York Sky-scrapers—The Effective Change Wrought by These Buildings in the City's Appearance Within A Few Years. Illustrated in Harper's Weekly 41 (March 20, 1897), p. 293, drawing. Fig. 18. New York's Changing Skyline, c.1908. Illustrated in Joseph B. Gilder, "The City of Dreadful Height." Putnam's Monthly 5 (November 1908), p. 143, chart. iv Fig. 19. Joseph Pennell, Cortlandt Street Ferry, 1908, Sandpaper Mezzotint, ll-7/8"x!0". Illustrated in Louis Wuerth, Catalogue of the Complete Etchings of Joseph Pennell, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1928, p. 173. Fig. 20. F. Hopkinson Smith, Skyline View, c.1912. Illustrated in F. Hopkinson Smith, Charcoals of New and Old New York, New York: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1912, p. 1, charcoal. Fig. 21. Henry McCarter, Down Along the Battery, c.1899. Illustrated in Jesse Lynch Williams, "The Water­ front of New York," Scribner's 26 (October 1899), p. 385, drawing. Fig. 22. Alvin Langdon Coburn, New York, 1907, Gum Platinotype, Halftone, 6.65"x6.49". Illustrated in Camera Work, no. 21 (January 1908) , p. 37. Fig. 23. Alfred Stieglitz, The City of Ambition, 1910, Photogravure, 8.7"x6.57". Illustrated in Camera Work, no. 36 (October 1911), p. 5. Fig. 24. Joseph Pennell, The Bridge, c.1912, Mezzotint. Illustrated in Joseph Pennell, The Great New York, Boston: Le Roy Phillips, 1912, pi. 19. Fig. 25. Leon Kroll, The Bridge, 1910-11, Oil on Canvas, 36"x48", Mr. and Mrs. Sigmund M. Hyman. Fig. 26. John Marin, Brooklyn Bridge, c.1912, Watercolor on Paper, 15-l/2"xl8-l/2", Estate of the Artist. Fig. 27. Joseph Pennell, The Stock Exchange, 1904, Etching, ll-3/4"x7-l/2". Illustrated in Louis Wuerth, Catalogue of the Complete Etchings of Joseph Pennell , Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1928, p. 113. Fig. 28. Childe Hassam, Lower Manhattan, 1907, Oil on Canvas, 30-l/8"xl6", Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Fig. 29. Colin Campbell Cooper, Broad Street Canyon, New York, c.1906. Illustrated in "America as a Nation of Artists and Poets," Current Literature 41 (August 1906), p. 174, oil on canvas. v Fig. 30. Alvin Langdon Coburn, The Stock Exchange, 1910, Photograph from Coburn's New York, London: Duckworth Press, 1910. Fig. 31. Birge Harrison, The "Flatiron" after Rain, c.1907, Oil on Canvas, 30"x41", St. Louis City Art Museum. Fig. 32. Albert Fleury, Masonic Temple, Chicago, c.1904. Illustrated in Maude I. G. Oliver, "A Chicago Painter: The Work of Albert Fleury," International Studio 22 (March 1904), p. 21, oil on canvas. Fig. 33. Alfred Stieglitz, The Flatiron, 1902-3, Photograph from original negative located in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 0.C.