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

Manhattan experienced an enormous surge in construction of state-of-the-art high-rise buildings in response to the heated economy that enlivened the city following World War I. Many of these projects were luxury hotels erected in the years before the 1929 stock-market crash. On the eve of World War II, the British- and American-trained Chinese artist Teng Hiok Chiu rendered this aerial view of New York's array of new "skyscrapers" clustered along Fifth Avenue in the upper 50s, apparently from a vantage point on 55th or 54th Street just west of Fifth Avenue. In this way, he typified the change of artistic focus from lower Manhattan to this upper midtown location as it transformed.

The 1927 Heckscher Building is impressionistically rendered. Designed as a retail and wholesale buying center for women, it is visible in the left middle, with its triangular rooftop (in actuality a water-tank enclosure) topped by a rooster finial. Many of its pat-rons were affluent guests of the three nearby Fifth Avenue hotels also depicted by Chiu: the Sherry-Netherland (at 59th Street), recognizable by its triangular roof surmounted by a steeple-like finial; the Pierre, immediately behind the Sherry-Netherland (at 61st Street); and the now-demolished Savoy-Plaza (occupying the entire block between 58th and 59th Streets), between the Sherry-Netherland and one of the area's step-sided buildings.¹

Notes:

1 Manhattan Skyline is very close in style to these works, which are confirmed as Chiu's; however, the signature on this piece is not completely legible. It appears to be Chiu's, but without a complete provenance of the canvas the work can only be attributed to Chiu.


Manhattan Skyline 1939 Attributed to Teng Hiok Chiu (b. 1903) Oil on canvas, 30J ´ 25J Signed lower left: Teng (additional words illegible) The Robert R. Preato Collection, 91.76.8
Manhattan experienced an enormous surge in construction of state-of-the-art high-rise buildings in response to the heated economy that enlivened the city following World War I. Many of these projects were luxury hotels erected in the years before the 1929 stock-market crash. On the eve of World War II, the British- and American-trained Chinese artist Teng Hiok Chiu rendered this aerial view of New York's array of new "skyscrapers" clustered along Fifth Avenue in the upper 50s, apparently from a vantage point on 55th or 54th Street just west of Fifth Avenue. In this way, he typified the change of artistic focus from lower Manhattan to this upper midtown location as it transformed. The 1927 Heckscher Building is impressionistically rendered. Designed as a retail and wholesale buying center for women, it is visible in the left middle, with its triangular rooftop (in actuality a water-tank enclosure) topped by a rooster finial. Many of its pat-rons were affluent guests of the three nearby Fifth Avenue hotels also depicted by Chiu: the Sherry-Netherland (at 59th Street), recognizable by its triangular roof surmounted by a steeple-like finial; the Pierre, immediately behind the Sherry-Netherland (at 61st Street); and the now-demolished Savoy-Plaza (occupying the entire block between 58th and 59th Streets), between the Sherry-Netherland and one of the area's step-sided buildings.¹ Notes: 1 Manhattan Skyline is very close in style to these works, which are confirmed as Chiu's; however, the signature on this piece is not completely legible. It appears to be Chiu's, but without a complete provenance of the canvas the work can only be attributed to Chiu.