New York Skyline from the Brooklyn Navy Yard
by Johann Berthelsen (1883–1972)16⅛ x 20⅛ inches
Signed lower right: Johann Berthelsen
Provenance
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. James Jemail, New York, New York
Angela Gross Folk, New Jersey
Estate of above
Sale, Freemans, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 20, 2023, lot 24, from above
Related Works
Brooklyn Bridge, oil on canvas, 19½ x 25¼ inches, signed lower right; Private collection
Moonlight over Brooklyn Bridge, oil on canvas, 18⅛ x 30⅜ inches, signed lower right; Private collection
Note: Johann Berthelsen depicts the East River, spotted with a variety of shipping vessels, with the skyline of Lower Manhattan in the distance. The artist created numerous depictions of Manhattan from across the river, typically featuring one of the city’s iconic bridges overhead.
James (Jimmy) Jemail worked as a writer-photographer for The Daily News for over fifty years, interviewing presidents, celebrities, and socialites.
Angela Gross Folk collected an impressive array of art over forty years, amassing notable works of American impressionism and modernism.
Artist Biography
Johann Berthelsen was a celebrated American impressionist known for his poetic renditions of New York City. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Berthelsen immigrated to the United States with his family as a child. He first expressed his artistic inclinations through music, a passion that played out over the course of his career. Berthelsen was a highly trained baritone who toured the country with the Grand Opera Company, ran the voice department at the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music, and opened his own teaching studio in New York City in 1920.
The Victorian critics John Ruskin and Walter Pater likened painting to music,
