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

Tottenville, Staten Island

ca. 1928

Oil on board

Unframed: 12 1/8 × 9 1/4 in. (30.8 × 23.5 cm)
Framed: 18 1/4 × 13 1/4 in. (46.4 × 33.7 cm)

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

IL2021.51.36

Martin Lewis was born in Australia and did not arrive in the United States until 1900, when he was nineteen years old He became known as one of the finest “American” artists of his generation. In the words of one biographer, “[T]he position of Martin Lewis is something of a paradox, for though an Australian by birth, he is perhaps the most essentially American of them all, that is to say, he is pictorially the most psychological interpreter of American life as it is lived in characteristic aspects of New York city [sic]. In 1920, following a failed amorous relationship, Lewis went to Japan with every intention of staying. He had harbored a long-time fascination with the country and its people and saw this as the time to make the move. The first six months were spent in Tokyo, but he found the city too formidable and moved to the countryside. Traveling from small town to small town, he immersed himself in the culture, studied the art, and filled sketchbooks with the country sites and seascapes that transfixed him. Just two years later, Lewis returned to New York—he had run out of money and believed he would never be able to learn the language. Not long afterward, Lewis met Lucile Deming and they married. Paul McCarron reports that their “first home was an old seaman’s house on Staten Island. Lewis’s attraction to the sea quite possibly led them there: in fact, he had lived near the Sydney harbor in his youth in Australia, and briefly worked as a merchant seaman. We do not know if the seaman’s house was in Tottenville, but Lewis must have at least known of the town. Tottenville, one of the oldest and most distinctive towns on Staten Island, is surrounded by water on three sides and sits on the island’s southern tip across from New Jersey. The bridge in the distance is probably the Outerbridge Crossing, connecting the two land masses. Construction on the bridge began in September 1925 and it was opened to traffic in 1928, so this painting cannot be dated earlier. Tottenville, Staten Island stands as testament to Lewis’s continued engagement with various aspects of Japanese art. The tumultuous skies with the sun breaking through suggest either an impending storm or one just passed. In an Impressionist style, he was able to achieve weather effects that recall the rain-filled images of the Japanese color woodcut prints he so admired. Malcolm Salaman, one of his first biographers, remarked that among “several prints of diverse motive, chiefly of fishing-boats under varying conditions along the coasts, it was not the subject matter so much as the atmospheric aspects that suggested the motive. Such is the case in Tottenville, Staten Island COMMUNITY VOICE The painting reminds me of why I love living in the small town of Tottenville. It is a laid-back, tranquil community nestled along Raritan Bay and the Kill Van Kull. I love to sit or stand on the beach and watch how the small boats bounce in the colorful waves as sailboats pass by. I am sure this was the inspiration for Mr. Lewis. James Pistilli President, Tottenville Civic Association

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