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

The artist Jerome Myers observed that when immigrants "merge here with New York, something happens that gives vibrancy."¹ The kaleidoscope of activity found in New York's immigrant neighborhoods reflected that vibrancy, captured by Myers in a low-keyed palette applied with quick, expressive brushwork and suffused with a golden haze. His many scenes of life in New York's Lower East Side emphasize whatever fleeting moments of happiness the often-difficult lives of new arrivals allowed.

Like other artists of his period, including those of the Ash Can School, Myers had a predilection for sentimentalizing slum children. Possibly his own unstable childhood, attributable to Myers' often-absent father, seriously ill mother, and several years spent in an orphanage, moved him to observe and record the happy times and cheerful spirits of the slums rather than their oppressive conditions. He frequently depicted clean, well-dressed children engaged in games or other pleasant distractions. In this view, children accompanied by several adults enjoy the colorful entertainment offered by a tiny traveling street carousel, one of the forms of urban entertainment that provided a meager living for their itinerant owners.

By 1936, the Restrictive Immigration Act imposed in the 1920s had severely reduced the annual flow of foreigners into New York City's ghettos. This decline did not, however, diminish the variety of newcomers, among whom were represented -in addition to the Irish, Germans, and Jews of preceding decades -Poles, Greeks, Slovaks, Turks, Russians, Romanians, and Italians.

Myers studied for a year at Cooper Union before enrolling in the Art Students League, where George de Forest Brush was one of his teachers. To support himself during his student years, he worked as a photoengraver, a theatrical scene painter, and a decorative painter. Although the league's traditional training provided a solid foundation, after eight years there Myers found himself "more interested in character than in pose."² Drawn to the realities of life as he saw them on the Lower East Side and similar neighborhoods around the city, he followed his personal bent in rendering what he found. Myers was friendly with John Sloan and his circle, was represented at the 1910 exhibition of the Independent Artists, and worked on the early plans for the 1913 Armory Show.³

Notes:

1 Quoted in Grant Holcomb, "The Forgotten Legacy of Jerome Myers (1867 -1940): Painter of New York's Lower East Side," American Art Journal (May 1977): 90.

2 Ibid., p. 80.

3 Sandra L. Langer, "Jerome Myers," in New York: Empire City in the Age of Urbanism (1875 -1945), ed. Robert R. Preato (New York: Grand Central Art Galleries, Art Education Association, 1989), p. 159.


Street Carousel 1936 Jerome Myers (1867 -1940) Oil on canvas, 18 X 24 Signed lower left: Jerome Myers 1936 Gift of Francis P. Garvan, 76.112
The artist Jerome Myers observed that when immigrants "merge here with New York, something happens that gives vibrancy."¹ The kaleidoscope of activity found in New York's immigrant neighborhoods reflected that vibrancy, captured by Myers in a low-keyed palette applied with quick, expressive brushwork and suffused with a golden haze. His many scenes of life in New York's Lower East Side emphasize whatever fleeting moments of happiness the often-difficult lives of new arrivals allowed. Like other artists of his period, including those of the Ash Can School, Myers had a predilection for sentimentalizing slum children. Possibly his own unstable childhood, attributable to Myers' often-absent father, seriously ill mother, and several years spent in an orphanage, moved him to observe and record the happy times and cheerful spirits of the slums rather than their oppressive conditions. He frequently depicted clean, well-dressed children engaged in games or other pleasant distractions. In this view, children accompanied by several adults enjoy the colorful entertainment offered by a tiny traveling street carousel, one of the forms of urban entertainment that provided a meager living for their itinerant owners. By 1936, the Restrictive Immigration Act imposed in the 1920s had severely reduced the annual flow of foreigners into New York City's ghettos. This decline did not, however, diminish the variety of newcomers, among whom were represented -in addition to the Irish, Germans, and Jews of preceding decades -Poles, Greeks, Slovaks, Turks, Russians, Romanians, and Italians. Myers studied for a year at Cooper Union before enrolling in the Art Students League, where George de Forest Brush was one of his teachers. To support himself during his student years, he worked as a photoengraver, a theatrical scene painter, and a decorative painter. Although the league's traditional training provided a solid foundation, after eight years there Myers found himself "more interested in character than in pose."² Drawn to the realities of life as he saw them on the Lower East Side and similar neighborhoods around the city, he followed his personal bent in rendering what he found. Myers was friendly with John Sloan and his circle, was represented at the 1910 exhibition of the Independent Artists, and worked on the early plans for the 1913 Armory Show.³ Notes: 1 Quoted in Grant Holcomb, "The Forgotten Legacy of Jerome Myers (1867 -1940): Painter of New York's Lower East Side," American Art Journal (May 1977): 90. 2 Ibid., p. 80. 3 Sandra L. Langer, "Jerome Myers," in New York: Empire City in the Age of Urbanism (1875 -1945), ed. Robert R. Preato (New York: Grand Central Art Galleries, Art Education Association, 1989), p. 159.