LEON KROLL | LOWER MANHATTAN

Bernard Danenberg Galleries, New York

George Farkas, New York, 1969 (acquired from the above)

By descent to the present owner

The present work depicts Columbus Park in downtown Manhattan. Formerly known as Mulberry Bend Park, it was renamed in 1911, the park borders the south end of what is today known as Chinatown. Viewed from the northeast corner of the park, the composition faces southwest with the Municipal Building seen looming large at upper center. At upper right stands the Woolworth Building which was recorded as the tallest building in the world in 1919 when the present work was painted. The red-roofed building seen at lower right is the Columbus Park Pavilion.

New York City was a favorite subject of Leon Kroll’s, as a native New Yorker, born in the city in 1884, his fondness for its jagged skyline and urban landscape inspired a number of paintings during the 1920s and 30s. Kroll’s early studies at the National Academy of Design, followed by his time at the Académie Julian in Paris, cemented his early influences in the French Impressionists, particularly the work of Paul Cézanne. After his return to New York in 1910, he later exhibited at the Armory Show of 1913 and his circle of close friends soon included members of The Eight such as George Bellows, William Glackens and Robert Henri., Lower Manhattan, combines both the loose brushwork that was signature of his European teachers with elements of the social realist style that occupied his peers.  

George Farkas, the original owner of Lower Manhattan who acquired it in 1969, was the founder of Alexander’s department store. First opened in 1924 with locations across the Bronx, Alexander’s would eventually open its flagship store in Manhattan at 59^th Street and Lexington Avenue in 1968. The work has since descended in his family to the present owner.