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Houston Street

Date
1917
Classification
Paintings
Collection
American Art
Current Location
On View, Gallery 334
Dimensions
23 7/8 x 41 5/8 in. (60.6 x 105.7 cm)
framed: 32 3/4 x 50 3/4 in. (83.2 x 128.9 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of Marie Setz Hertslet
Rights
Public Domain
Object Number
121:1972
NOTES
In the early 20th century, Houston Street traversed the heart of a densely congested immigrant neighborhood in New York’s Lower East Side. George Luks captured the chaotic but dynamic experience as tenement residents, open-air merchants, pushcarts, and sidewalk stands all compete for space. Though such gritty scenes were thought rather shocking subject matter for fine art, Luks celebrated them. He believed such working-class and immigrant neighborhoods represented the vitality of the modern world. Luks and others like him were often called the Ashcan School, because their works included the grays and browns of soot that spread over the streets at the time.
by 1923 - still in 1927
Dr. Thomas L. Bennett, New York, NY, USA [1]

by 1931 - 1936
Newhouse Galleries, New York, NY [2]

1936 -
C. H. Platt, purchased from Newhouse Galleries

- 1953
Newhouse Galleries, New York, NY

1953 - 1972
G. Gordon Hertslet (1901-1979) and Marie Setz Hertslet (d.1972), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Newhouse Galleries [3]

1972 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of Marie Setz Hertslet [4]


Notes:
The main source for this provenance is a letter to G. Gordon Hertslet from Newhouse Galleries dated June 15, 1970 [SLAM document files]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[1] Dr. Thomas L. Bennett was listed as the lender of this painting to a 1923 exhibition ["Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by George Luks." New York, NY: C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, January 8-27, 1923, cat. no. 5]. Dr. Bennett is believed to be the original owner of the painting, based on a September 24, 1927 letter from George Luks referenced in correspondence from Newhouse Galleries. It seems that Newhouse Galleries acquired the painting from Dr. Bennett, as Newhouse Galleries correspondence goes on to state that the letter from Luks was given to Mr. Platt when he purchased the painting [SLAM document files].

[2] A 1931 article describes the inclusion of this work in an exhibition of the collection of Newhouse Gallery [Osburn, Maurine. "Newhouse Collection Now on Exhibit at Highland Park," "Dallas Morning News," 1 February 1931]. Additionally, a 1934 article includes an illustration of the painting courtesy of Newhouse Galleries, and Erich-Newhouse Incorporated is listed as the lender in a 1934 exhibition [Benson, E. M. "The American Scene," The American Magazine of Art (XXV:2) 1934, p. 55; "The Work of George Benjamin Luks." Newark, NJ: The Newark Museum, October 30, 1934 - January 6, 1935, cat. no. 34]. The 1970 letter from Newhouse Galleries to Mr. Hertslet clearly states that the painting was sold by Newhouse Galleries to C. H. Platt in 1936 [SLAM document files].

[3] Both the Museum's accession record and a completed appraisal form indicate that the Hertslets purchased the painting from Newhouse Galleries in 1953 [SLAM document files].

[4] Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, July 20, 1972.

We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.