Rowland Lyon, Georgetown Waterfront, 1934, oil on canvas, 26 1⁄8 x 40 in. (66.3 x 101.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, 1974.89.5
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Georgetown Waterfront
- Artist
- Date
- 1934
- Location
- Dimensions
- 26 1⁄8 x 40 in. (66.3 x 101.5 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Transfer from the General Services Administration
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on canvas
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Architecture — industry — factory
- Cityscape — District of Columbia — Washington
- Cityscape — District of Columbia — Georgetown
- Cityscape — river — Potomac River
- New Deal — Public Works of Art Project — Washington, D.C.
- Object Number
- 1974.89.5
Artwork Description
Rowland Lyon lived in Washington, D.C., his entire life. Even though he traveled abroad often, he always enjoyed painting images of his hometown. In Georgetown Waterfront, the landscape is divided into three horizontal bands: the buildings lining the Georgetown waterfront, their rippling reflections in the Potomac River, and the bare winter landscape in the foreground on the Virginia side of the river. During the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, Americans saw factories and smokestacks as symbols of the country's economic recovery. Lyon painted a row of silos, buildings, and chimneys in bright, cheerful colors to celebrate industry as an essential part of the American landscape.