Artist/Maker Martin Lewis (American, 1881 – 1962)

Spiral Staircase, Queensboro Bridge

ca. 1929

Watercolor and graphite on paper

Unframed: 20 3/4 × 14 1/2 in. (52.7 × 36.8 cm)
Framed: 26 × 19 3/4 in. (66 × 50.2 cm)

Promised gift of Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld, Scenes of New York City

IL2021.51.35

Martin Lewis’s moody, crepuscular view of the interior of the iconic Queensboro Bridge (1909) is distinctive and unexpected, especially when compared to the three other representations of the bridge in the Hirschfeld Collection promised gift—two depicting its spans and one viewing it from a distance. Unlike those more panoramic images, Lewis zeroed in on a single, salient feature—one of its two twisting skeletal staircases—in a daring manner that prefigures works of the 1960s. In his scene, the technological marvel dwarfs its anonymous pedestrians and contrasts the bridge’s massive beams with the spidery curlicue of the staircase. The plans for these corkscrew staircases are preserved in architect Henry Hornbostel’s maze-like architectural rendering of one tower of the bridge, originally known as the Blackwell’s Island Bridge. Lewis also drew a smaller, black ink study for this watercolor. Although these staircases, which were planned to enable workers to hoist flags on the bridge’s towers, have been removed, their existence is preserved in a few other views, but none as dramatic as Lewis’s watercolor within the shadowy bowels of the bridge. The structure continues to inspire artists, among them Yvonne Jacquette, as in her Queensboro Bridge, Autumn with Police Boat (2002). As a youth, Lewis developed an early passion for drawing. He eventually settled in a bohemian community outside of Sydney and studied at the Art Society’s School with Julian Ashton, becoming one of the first Australian artists to take up printmaking. With the turn into the new century, Lewis left for the United States and found a job in San Francisco painting stage decorations for William McKinley’s presidential campaign of 1900. By 1905, he was living in New York City, engaged in commercial illustration but developing as a printmaker. It was during this period that he helped Edward Hopper learn the basics of etching. For two years in the 1920s, he lived in Japan and studied Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, whose influence can be seen in the graphic boldness and cropped view of Spiral Staircase. The twilight watercolor also betrays the influence of American expatriate artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who likewise was a master etcher, and influential on Lewis, as seen in his Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge. Lewis’s first solo exhibition in 1929 was so successful that it allowed him to concentrate on printmaking. The economics of the Depression, however, forced him to leave the City for the years 1932–36. After Lewis returned, he taught printmaking at the Art Students League (1944–52) and became a master of intaglio techniques. In fact, he was one of the most refined American printmakers of the first half of the twentieth century, best known for his black-and-white prints, many of which are night scenes. Lewis’s striking painting of Tottenville in the Hirschfeld Collection promised gift joins a drypoint by the artist—Chance Meeting—held by the N-YHS Library. COMMUNITY VOICE The staircase rising from this pedestrian promenade stirs thoughts of the endless possibility, and fragility, of infrastructure. As the car became the central focus for city development and captured the imagination of city planners, this pathway, stairway and their accessible ideals were paved over. Now we face the consequences of this auto-centric approach: a climate crisis, asthma epidemic, and crushing congestion. Maybe they had it right the first time—we can only climb staircases using our two feet. Juan Restrepo Cyclist and Queens Organizer for Transportation Alternatives

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