REGINALD MARSH American, 1898-1954 CONEY ISLAND BEACH etching print Original etching print. Sasowsky 153. Signed in plate lower right RM 1934. Whitney Museum imprint lower right printed 1969 in an edition of 114 (numbered 31/100). Sheet measures 13 inches high, 16 inches wide. Plate measures 10 inches high, 10 inches wide. Framed. Small fold at bottom right corner. Plate: 9.5 x 9.75 inches; Sight (as matted): 10.25 x 10.25 inches; frame: 17 x 17 inches $500-900
ARTIST PROFILE: Reginald Marsh (1898–1954) was an American painter and printmaker best known for his vivid depictions of urban life in New York City during the 1920s through 1940s. Born in Paris to American artist parents, he grew up in New Jersey and studied at Yale University before working as an illustrator for publications like The Daily News and The New Yorker. Marsh later trained at the Art Students League of New York, where he developed the dynamic, densely populated compositional style for which he became known. He is celebrated for his energetic scenes of Coney Island beaches, burlesque theaters, subway cars, and Bowery street life, often rendered with a mix of admiration and social commentary on the crowds and class dynamics of Depression-era America. Working across oil, tempera, watercolor, and printmaking (etching and engraving in particular), Marsh drew on Old Master techniques, especially the crosshatching and figure work of artists like Rubens, to depict distinctly modern, working-class American subjects. He taught for many years at the Art Students League, influencing a generation of American Scene and Social Realist painters, and his work remains widely collected for its lively documentation of mid-20th-century urban culture.
