Washington Square by Augusta Payne Rathbone
Washington Square
Augusta Payne Rathbone
Title
Washington Square
Artist
Year
1943
Technique
etching and color aquatint
Image Size
8 3/4 x 5 3/4" platemark
Signature
pencil, lower right
Edition Size
artist's proof 6/9, not editioned further.
Annotations
Reference
Paper
antique-white wove
State
published
Publisher
artist
Inventory ID
MBL101
Price
SOLD
Description
This colorful, Modernist color aquatint and etching is of Washington Square in Greenwich Village in New York. Rather than focus her attention on the iconic Washington Square Arch Rathbone instead chose to depict the colorful row houses on Waverly Place, across from the park. The park is the center of activity for the Greenwich Village area, bustling with tourists, chess players, artists, students, children and residents enjoying the weather throughout the year. Rathbone depicts a mother and baby carriage in the park in fall. A twisted, skeletal tree stretches into a clouded sky. The mostly red, brick buildings from the houses add a brightness to an otherwise drab day. The 1833 row of red brick townhouses on the north end of Washington Square Park, known as “Waverly Place,” belongs to the later phase of the Federal style, spanning the late-18th to early-19th century in the newly independent former American colonies.