Eltinge Follies
1940
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
engraving in black [restrike]
Dimensions
plate: 30.5 × 25.4 cm (12 × 10 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Avalon Fund
Accession Number
1970.12.28
Art Historical Context
Reginald Marsh's *Eltinge Follies* (1940) captures the vibrant spirit of American urban entertainment during the early 20th century. A master of Social Realism and a key figure in the American Scene painting movement Marsh was fascinated by New York City's theaters, burlesque halls, and vaudeville stages. This engraving likely depicts performers from the Eltinge Follies, named after the renowned female impersonator Julian Ele, whose glamorous revues blended high energy, satire, and spectacle in the tradition of the Ziegfeld Follies. Created amid the looming shadows of World War II, Marsh's wor...
About the Artist
Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh was born on March 14, 1898, in Paris, where both his parents — American artists — were living, and grew up in Nutley, New Jersey. He graduated from Yale University in 1920 and moved to New York City to pursue a career as a freelance illustrator, finding early success with caricatures and sketches for the New York Daily News and, from 1925, The New Yorker. A casual desire to learn pa...