72 - Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954)

Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954) East Side New York with the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance,signed and dated 'Adriaan/Lubbers/1929' (lower centre, on advertising board),oil on canvas, 54x81 cm,Exhibited:-New York, Museum of the City of New York, ‘Adriaan Lubbers in New York', 10 March-23 August 1992 (label attached to the reverse).-Laren, Singer Museum, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), tussen Nederland en New York', 28 November 1999-20 February 2000, no. 20, as: ‘East side with Brooklyn Bridge’ (label attached to the reverse).Literature:-Ann Blokland, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), tussen Nederland en New York’, Laren 1999, p. 46.Provenance:-Galerie Zak, Paris, 1930, inv. no. 6.-Auction, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 21 October 1985, lot 111.-Collection Ms C. Kessler, Amsterdam.This work belongs to a series of paintings depicting expansive views across the city of New York. Rather than Lubbers’ preferred vertical format, the present work is executed in a horizontal format. As a result, it is not the vertical axis that dominates the composition. In East Side with Brooklyn Bridge, the viewer is offered a bird’s-eye perspective over the buildings, with the view extending even beyond the Hudson River. The bustle of street life, with all its intricate details, is no longer visible.Two subtly rendered intersecting diagonal lines appear to run like streets between the buildings. On the right-hand side of the composition, the railway tracks cut across the canvas. Together with the blocks of buildings, which are likewise arranged on a diagonal, they create a highly rhythmic composition. Lubbers employed a surprisingly fresh colour palette, dominated by red and punctuated by accents of green, blue and yellow. And as a playful touch, the artist incorporated his signature into one of the many advertising signs adorning the buildings.