Vanderbilt Avenue from East 46th Street
October 9, 1935
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
overall: 23.7 × 16.5 cm (9 5/16 × 6 1/2 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
The Marvin Breckinridge Patterson Fund for Photography and Robert B. Menschel Fund
Accession Number
1998.65.1
Art Historical Context
Step into the dynamic heart of 1930s Manhattan with Berenice Abbott's *Vanderbilt Avenue East 46th Street*, captured on October 9, 1935. This silver print, measuring 23.7 × 16.5 cm, offers a elevated view down the avenue, framed by towering skyscrapers and the hum of urban life amid the Great Depression. Abbott, a pioneering photographer, masterfully documented New York City's evolving skyline as part of her WPA-funded *Changing New York* project, preserving architectural landmarks before rapid modernization erased them. The gelatin silver print medium, prized for its crisp detail and rich to...
About the Artist
Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) was an American photographer whose documentary images of New York City and pioneering scientific photography established her as one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. Born in Springfield, Ohio, she moved to New York in 1918, briefly studied sculpture, and then traveled to Paris, where she became Man Ray's studio assistant in 1923. In Paris, A...