Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

In this view of lower Manhattan, just south of the familiar Brooklyn Bridge, the artist shows only the vestiges of nineteenth-century New York. A turn of 180 degrees would reveal to the viewer the contrasting modernism of lower Manhattan's Wall Street area.

Cecil Bell had an eye for the everyday. The tilt of a head or the contour of a body struggling under a burden delighted him as much as the juxtapositions of the city's built environment. In this scene, a horse-drawn vehicle contending with the cold, wintry conditions, an oil-drum fire, the buildings, the bridge, and the ornate lamppost, all from earlier eras, emphasize Bell's nostalgia for this corner of the South Street area (possibly Peck Slip).

Born in Seattle, Washington, Bell received his first art training at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1930 he moved to New York, where he studied at the Art Students League under Harry Wickey and John Sloan. From Sloan he learned loose brushwork, the use of a lit area in a dark setting, and the compositional disposition of figures within a scene. At the league he absorbed the 1930s Social Realist aesthetic (if not its fervent espousal of social issues), to which he added a light-hearted sense of humor. Like Sloan, Bell frequently depicted large groups of people engaged in the same activity -working, swimming, celebrating. By contrast, in his views of urban settings centered around a few seemingly unrelated figures, Bell recorded his ongoing romance with New York City. After several years in Greenwich Village, he and his wife, Agatha, moved to Tompkinsville, Staten Island. His studio overlooked the Narrows, the Bay, and the Staten Island Ferry, frequent subjects for his canvases.


The Brooklyn Bridge in Snow 1964 Cecil C. Bell (1906 -1970) Oil on masonite, 35 1/2 X 29 1/2 Signed lower right: Cecil C. Bell Gift of Mrs. C. C. Bell, 73.16
In this view of lower Manhattan, just south of the familiar Brooklyn Bridge, the artist shows only the vestiges of nineteenth-century New York. A turn of 180 degrees would reveal to the viewer the contrasting modernism of lower Manhattan's Wall Street area. Cecil Bell had an eye for the everyday. The tilt of a head or the contour of a body struggling under a burden delighted him as much as the juxtapositions of the city's built environment. In this scene, a horse-drawn vehicle contending with the cold, wintry conditions, an oil-drum fire, the buildings, the bridge, and the ornate lamppost, all from earlier eras, emphasize Bell's nostalgia for this corner of the South Street area (possibly Peck Slip). Born in Seattle, Washington, Bell received his first art training at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1930 he moved to New York, where he studied at the Art Students League under Harry Wickey and John Sloan. From Sloan he learned loose brushwork, the use of a lit area in a dark setting, and the compositional disposition of figures within a scene. At the league he absorbed the 1930s Social Realist aesthetic (if not its fervent espousal of social issues), to which he added a light-hearted sense of humor. Like Sloan, Bell frequently depicted large groups of people engaged in the same activity -working, swimming, celebrating. By contrast, in his views of urban settings centered around a few seemingly unrelated figures, Bell recorded his ongoing romance with New York City. After several years in Greenwich Village, he and his wife, Agatha, moved to Tompkinsville, Staten Island. His studio overlooked the Narrows, the Bay, and the Staten Island Ferry, frequent subjects for his canvases.