Workers Houses, Flushing Bay

Philip Evergood, Workers Houses, Flushing Bay, 1935-1945, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arnold and Augusta Newman, 1982.130
Philip Evergood, Workers Houses, Flushing Bay, 1935-1945, oil on canvas, 1828 in. (45.771.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arnold and Augusta Newman, 1982.130

Artwork Details

Title
Workers Houses, Flushing Bay
Date
1935-1945
Dimensions
1828 in. (45.771.1 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Arnold and Augusta Newman
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture — boat
  • Landscape — coast
  • Waterscape — bay — Flushing Bay
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
Object Number
1982.130

Artwork Description

Many of Philip Evergood’s images protested the exploitation of America’s laborers, but this painting has a different quality. It focuses on the idea of home and community in the working-class neighborhood of Flushing Bay, in Queens. The settlement is not prosperous, but each house has its own plot of land and a few trees to soften the landscape. Smoke billowing from chimneys echoes the stacks of factories in the distance, where the people of Flushing Bay earn their living. The artist gave the painting to photographer Arnold Newman, and Newman later recalled his visit to pick it up in Evergood’s Greenwich Village studio. Evergood had decided that it needed “a spot of red here . . . He took out his paints and brushes and for four or five hours, long into the night, he reworked the canvas while I watched.” (Augusta and Arnold Newman to Adelyn Breeskin, December 28, 1982, SAAM curatorial file)

Works by this artist (22 items)

Arthur Wesley Dow, Brittany Farm, 1885, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James F. Dicke Family, 2014.11.3
Brittany Farm
Date1885
oil on canvas
On view
Arthur Wesley Dow, Cemetery at Ipswich, ca. 1895-1910, cyanotype, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation, 1997.73
Cemetery at Ipswich
Dateca. 1895-1910
cyanotype
Not on view
Arthur Wesley Dow, Ipswich Prints: Lily, 1901/published 1902, photo-mechanical relief reproduction on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. F. F. Reinert, 1976.96.2.5
Ipswich Prints: Lily
Date1901/published 1902
photo-mechanical relief reproduction on paper
Not on view
Arthur Wesley Dow, Ipswich Prints: Fragment of old brocade, Persian design, 1901/published 1902, photo-mechanical relief reproduction on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. F. F. Reinert, 1976.96.2.2
Ipswich Prints: Fragment of old brocade, Persian design
Date1901/published 1902
photo-mechanical relief reproduction on paper
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

New York Cultural Center
Artist
Date1973
color lithograph
Not on view
(Exhibition Poster)
Date1967
offset lithograph
Not on view
Romaine Brooks, Untitled (Caught by the Collar), ca. 1930, photomechanical reproduction on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1968.90.14
Untitled (Caught by the Collar)
Dateca. 1930
photomechanical reproduction on paper
Not on view