Avenue of the Allies (5^th Avenue)

Anne Goldthwaite, Avenue of the Allies (5th Avenue), 1918, etching on paper, plate: 7 ⁷⁄₈ x 6 in. (20.0 x 15.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1973.52

Free to use

Artwork Details

Title: Avenue of the Allies (5^th Avenue)
Artist: Anne Goldthwaite
Date: 1918
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: plate: 7 ⁷⁄₈ x 6 in. (20.0 x 15.1 cm)
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Mediums Description: etching on paper
Classifications: Graphic Arts
Print
Subjects: Cityscape — New York — New York
Cityscape — street — 5^th Avenue
History — United States — World War I
Cityscape — New York — Manhattan
Object — other — flag
Object Number: 1973.52
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1973.52

Artwork Description

When Anne Goldthwaite was twenty-three years old, her conservative family supported her move from Alabama to New York City to pursue art because, they believed, she had passed the suitable age for marriage. She studied at the National Academy of Design for six years and then set off for Paris, joining writer Gertrude Stein's circle of progressive artists and intellectuals. When the looming threat of World War I forced her return to New York, she exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show and eventually became a prominent instructor at the Art Students League. This print shows Goldthwaite's enthusiasm for abstract art, with gestural lines capturing the festive victory parades in Manhattan at the war's conclusion. She was equally bold in her politics, joining the women's suffrage movement, probably in reaction to the social restrictions of her upbringing in the Deep South.