Manhattan

For more than seventy years, William Meyerowitz was a vital presence in the culture of New York. A Russian immigrant who settled as a young man on the city’s Lower East Side, he studied painting with William Merritt Chase and etching with Charles Mielatz at the National Academy of Design. A talented musician, he supported himself during this period by singing baritone in the Metropolitan Opera chorus. By the 1920s he had arrived at his mature artistic style, which integrated the personalized touch of the American Impressionists, the vivid palette of the Fauves, and the compositional structures of the European avant-garde. He is best known for his innovations in color printing, involving multiple runs, multiple plates, and complex inkings. Manhattan, one of his preferred subjects in the 1930s, is among the most imposing and vibrant of his color prints. Setting exacting standards for himself, Meyerowitz created his own etching plates, mixed his own inks, and printed all of his works himself, manifesting a truly extraordinary commitment to a lifelong practice. The collection’s 136 prints, including many in multiple states and different color schemes, form the most important holding of Meyerowitz’s etched work.