Frozen Custard, 1939

Provenance

The Honorable William Benton Collection

ACA Heritage Galleries, New York, New York

Mr. and Mrs. Howard Weingrow, Old Westbury, New York, by 1972

Private collection, acquired by 2001

Sotheby’s, New York, New York, May 14, 2025, Lot 275

Private collection, acquired from above

Exhibited

Reginald Marsh: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1972-73, Newport Harbor Art Museum, November 2 – December 10, 1972, Newport Beach, California; Des Moines Art Center, January 8 – February 18, 1973, Des Moines, Iowa; Fort Worth Art Center Museum, February 27 – April 1, 1973; University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin, April 15 – May 31, 1973, no. 37

Literature

David C. Driskell, The Other Side of Color (Pomegranate: San Francisco, 2001), p. 4, fig. 7.

Thomas H. Garver, and Newport Harbor Art Museum, Reginald Marsh: A Retrospective Exhibition. (Newport Beach, California, 1972)

Related Works

The Bowery, 1930, tempera on Masonite, 48 x 36 inches, signed and dated lower right: Reginald Marsh / 1930; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Lunch, 1927, oil on linen, 24 1/16 × 36 inches, signed and dated lower right: Reginald Marsh / 1930; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

Frozen Custard, 1939, etching, 6 ⅞ x 9 ⅝ inches; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Note

Marsh is renowned for his vivid portrayals of New York City’s urban life, capturing exuberant crowds and the spectacle of modern entertainment. His works convey “the vigor of nightlife and the excitement and glamour of its colors, lights, and sounds,” while the details lend a documentary precision that captures the city’s aura and tempo.[1] From Coney Island to the Bowery, Marsh chronicled familiar street scenes whose popularity lay in their immediacy, yet within them he also explored more private themes—men and women, spectator and performer, seeing and not seeing.[2]

[1] Nancy Heller and Julia Williams, Painters of the American Scene (Galahad Books, 1982), 18.

[2] Marilyn Cohen and Whitney Museum of American Art, Reginald Marsh’s New York : Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Photographs (Whitney Museum of American Art in association with Dover Publications, 1983), 2.