26. Elias Grossman
(1898-1947)
Rain on the Square (Washington Arch, New York City)

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Grossman: Rain on the Square

Rain on the Square (Washington Arch, New York City)

Drypoint, ca. 1935, 303 x 226 mm. Fine impression on buff simili-japon with good margins and signed in pencil; old tape at the corners of the sheet. Grossman arrived in America from the town of Kobryn, then Russia, now Belarus, at the age of thirteen. His father had immigrated here years before but was not able to bring his son until later. After high school, he began working as a hat maker in a shop, but began to paint in his spare hours. Eventually he was able to study print making under William Auerbach-Levy, and a job with a newspaper enabled him to travel in Europe, continue art studies, and paint portraits. But New York City remained his home and his representations of it are affectionate portraits of time and place.