Accession Number
1980/1.141

Title
Arverne, Low Tide

Artist(s)
Karl Struss

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1912

Medium & Support
platinum print on paper

Dimensions
12 1/16 in x 9 in (30.7 cm x 22.8 cm);19 5/16 in x 14 3/8 in (49.05 cm x 36.51 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art

Label copy
As a young man, Karl Struss vacationed with his family in the areas surrounding New York City, including the town of Arverne, located along the south shore of Long Island. In his depiction of a resort featuring a long boardwalk along the Atlantic, Struss used the formal elements of the boardwalk’s piers and the reflections in the water to create a composition of elegant simplicity and atmospheric mood.
Struss' family vacationed in Arverne when he was a youth, a town located on the southern shore of Long Island (near present-day Kennedy Airport). At that time there was a large hotel and extensive boardwalks. Struss made a number of photographs of the boardwalk, sea, beach and sky in the 1910s, including night views.
Carole McNamara, Assistant Director for Collections & Exhibitions
on the occasion of the exhibition New York Observed: The Mythology of the City
(July 13 – September 22, 2003)

Subject matter
In this vertically oriented photograph, pedestrians stroll across a boardwalk that is elevated on tall narrow wooden legs above the beaches of Arverne on the south shore of Long Island. The figures and the bridge are silhouetted against the brightly illuminated sky and seascape in the background. The photographer constructed this view while standing on the sandy beach below the boardwalk, while the ocean was at low tide. 

Physical Description
View of a boardwalk elevated above a beach with pedestrians walking above and waves crashing below. 

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
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Keywords
Figures
Waterscapes
beaches
boardwalks
bridges
leisure
modern and contemporary art
pedestrians
seascapes