Reginald Marsh: The Britannic Sails and Texas Guinan and Her Gang
Born in Paris, France in 1898, Reginald Marsh was a social realist painter, watercolorist, cartoonist, and illustrator who spent most of his adult life working in New York City. Marsh came from a wealthy family and was the child of the two artists Alice Randall and Fredrich Dana Marsh. Reginald Marsh graduated from Yale University in 1920, and immediately moved to New York, where he found work as a freelance illustrator depicting vaudeville and burlesque scenes. His work would then translate to The New Yorker where he was one of the first cartoonists for the magazine, which is widely known for its distinctive cartoon style.
Once in New York, Marsh enrolled in the Art Students League of New York, where he learned painting from John Sloan, one of the members of the Ashcan School otherwise known as “The Eight”. In the following years, Marsh took a pilgrimage to his birthplace, where he furthered his understanding of classical European works and painting techniques. His interest in painting grew from this exploration, and he began to hold the works of realist Baroque painters in high regard. Upon returning to New York, Marsh took up lessons under George Luks, another member of The Eight, and Kenneth Hayes Miller, who taught many other famous artists, including Yasuo Kuniyoshi and William C. Palmer. These lessons gradual pushed him to create the scenes that he is famous for today, depicting New York City life, large crowds of young people, the Depression, and other works of social commentary.
Marsh often made work using pen and ink, pencil, and watercolor. He created lithographs that would be dipped in paint or ink to be colorized. However, the media that Marsh primarily used for his later works was egg tempera paint, which was closer in consistency to watercolor but had a vibrancy and quality that was closer to oil paint, which Marsh had failed to adopt a decade earlier. Marsh’s work not only illustrated the messiness of modern-day life, especially in New York city during the 30’s when the Great Depression was in full swing, but also was a commentary on sexual exploitation and the role of women in modern America.
The Britannic Sails was completed in 1939 and is currently owned by Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, who received the work as a gift from Edward W. Root. The work is tempera paint on panel and is 20 x 30 inches. The work depicts a dark and gloomy scene with muscular black men in the foreground, and a ship framed by dark figures floating in what can be inferred as a New York City harbor. Dark, brooding clouds fill the sky and create an overcast atmosphere in the work, casting a shadow over the scene and its inhabitants. The city is a recurring motif in much of Marsh’s work, and even in paintings in which the city is relegated to the background, it is still strongly rendered. Many of the other figures are slumped on the ground or are in unfavorable positions, pushing them back in the space and emphasizing the brightly lit and glossy men in the center of work. The piece seems to be a commentary on slavery, with the motifs of the industrial ship and black figures representational of slave ships coming to the new world. However, Marsh’s over emphasis of the men in the foreground; the lighting of their skin, the intensity and definition of their muscles, the fact that they are entirely unclothed surrounded by mostly clothed people, suggests empowerment of these figures. The MV Britannic was a ship, the same ship depicted in the work, that operated as a transport for troops during World War II. The ship traveled back and forth from New York during 1939, which is when Marsh must have caught sight of it and painted the image. Thus, this painting is a war image, depicting soldiers readying themselves for the long voyage before battle. Stopping in Africa in 1940, the ship picked up many black passengers, but that was after the painting was completed by Marsh. While many of the figures remain unfinished or largely untouched, they only amplify the main figures of the work and the draw attention to the foreground and the Britannic, which are the most finely detailed parts of the work. From previous knowledge collected on the styles Marsh was influenced by, it is clear that it is his intention to use light and shadow as well as detail and form to call the viewer to his most anticipated areas are techniques that he picked up from the old Baroque masters. Unlike many of his peers, Marsh’s rejection of modern art is blatant in his work, as he strives to present what is real and happening in the social world around him.
Another work by Marsh, Texas Guinan and her Gang, uses a similar technique. Completed in 1931, the work is currently on display at Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute and was bequeathed to them again by Edward W. Root. Like the previous work, this painting is tempera, but instead employs a canvas that stretches 36 1/8th x 48 inches. The scene displays what the title suggests, Texas Guinan, who was an American actress and entrepreneur, best known for the films “The Gun Woman” (1918), “Queen of the Night Club” (1929), and “Broadway Thru a Keyhole” (1933), along with the rest of what can only be assumed is her “gang”. Also well known for her attendance at many speakeasies during the Prohibition, which stretched from 1920 to 1933 in the United States, she was a pop icon that represented freedom and rebellion against the injustice of the time. Completed during the Prohibition, Marsh’s work is a scene from one of those clubs, as is indicated by the large brown jug held by the man in the lower left corner of the painting, as well as the waiter carrying a tray of what appear to be whiskey glasses behind him and Texas. The scene features Texas partying behind a group of white and wealthy men, watching women dressed like flappers dance with a freedom and liveliness iconic of the time period. Like The Britannic Sails, the use of tempera paint creates an effect quite different from traditional oil painters, especially the work of the old masters that so inspired Reginald Marsh. Closer inspection of the work reveals that very few of the faces are actually completed, and instead the planes of the face are the only features rendered. When the facial features are included, they are thin suggestions, rather than full renderings, of the expressions and emotions felt by the characters. This technique however is especially useful in creating space. When used on characters like the waiter, it pushes them further into the background and brings the surrounding figures forward. A technique traditionally used in Baroque paintings, the use of light and the 70/30 split of darkness to light is ignored by Marsh in both of these works. Instead it seems that he paints the composition exactly as it would have appeared to him in real life. Texas herself towers above the rest of the figures, clearly highlighting her as the focus of the work. She is not, however, the focal point. The focal point instead appears to be the two women in the foreground, one wearing a bright turquois shirt and the other dancing in a tamer blue. Like many of Marsh’s pieces, the unknown and objectified woman of the world are the subjects of his main interest, although he does objectify them himself through this process. Guinan had moved to New York to first pursue her career, so it can be inferred that they are in the city.
The Britannic Sails and Texas Guinan and her Gang by Reginald Marsh, who would later die from a heart attack in 1954, are pieces that represent America at its core values. Freedom, defiance, resilience, and courage are among the few ideals that Marsh’s work express, but while many tout these ideals as “the American Dream”, which is typically an abstract idea for the world to strive towards, Marsh depicts the people that are truly working towards it, inhabiting America’s largest city, fighting to accomplish those dreams. His social realist approach highlights the people themselves and gives voice, even if slightly misogynistic, to those that strive and fight for a better America.
References
Cohen, Marilyn (1983). Reginald Marsh’s New York: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Photographs. New York: Dover Publications
Laning, Edward (1973). The Sketchbooks of Reginald Marsh. New York: New York Graphic Society Ltd
Doss, Erika (1983). “Images of American Women in the 1930s: Reginald Marsh and Paramount Picture”. Woman’s Art Journal. https://americanart.si.edu/artist/reginald-marsh-3125
de Kerbrech, Richard P. (2002). The Last Liners of the White Star Line: MV Britannic and MV Georgic. Shipping Book Press.
