Lunch Wagon, Madison Square

Details

EVERETT SHINN (1876-1953)
Lunch Wagon, Madison Square
signed and indistinctly dated 'E. Shinn 1904' (lower left)
gouache, watercolor and pastel on paper laid down on paperboard
8 ½ x 13 in. (21.6 x 33 in.)
Executed in 1904.

Provenance

Charles T. Henry, New York.
James Graham & Sons, New York.
Arthur G. Altschul, New York, acquired from the above, 1956.
Sotheby's, New York, 4 December 2002, lot 12, sold by the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

S. Geist, "Month in Review," Arts, vol. XXXII, no. 5, February 1958, p. 48, illustrated (as New York at Night).
D.G. Lowe, ed., New York, N.Y.: An American Heritage Extra on the History of the Nation's Greatest City, New York, 1968, p. 75, illustrated.
E. Deshazo, Everett Shinn (1876-1953): A Figure in His Time, New York, 1974, p. 207.
"The American City: A Gathering of Turn-of-the-Century Paintings," American Heritage, vol XXVII, no. 3, April 1976, p. 31, illustrated.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

In the 1870s and 1880s, when restaurants closed at 8 p.m., inventive vendors in Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, created wagons to serve hot food and drinks as a "night lunch" for those working overnight. In 1893, the Church Temperance Society in New York City closed their coffee houses to focus on night lunch wagons, and they soon expanded around the city. Many of these early horse-drawn food trucks were given nocturnal-themed names, such as The Owl seen on the side of the wagon in the present work. Amidst the glowing lights, Shinn shares a glimpse of the Madison Square Garden tower at upper right.

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