Manhattan Excavation

Accession Number
1988/2.23

Title
Manhattan Excavation

Artist(s)
Sir Muirhead Bone

Artist Nationality
British (modern)

Object Creation Date
1928

Medium & Support
drypoint on Japan paper

Dimensions
15 11/16 in x 13 1/4 in (39.9 cm x 33.6 cm);22 1/16 in x 18 1/8 in (56.1 cm x 46 cm)

Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by the Jean Paul Slusser Memorial Fund

Subject matter
The print depicts the building site of the future Hotel Roosevelt, which opened in 1924, in New York City, at the intersection of Madison Avenue and East 45th Street. Bone made the print during his first trip to New York City in 1923, and completed it in London in 1928.

Physical Description
Teeming with meticulously recorded detail, this print depicts a massive construction site in the midst of a city. The large hole of the site consumes the majority of the lower two-thirds of the image; the upper portion consists of roads and buildings. Scaffolding and building materials extrude from the site into the air. 
Signed on plate, recto, l.r.: "Muirhead Bone"
Signed below platemark, recto, in pencil: "Muirhead Bone".

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
intaglio print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Manhattan
buildings (structures)
cityscapes (representations)
construction equipment
construction sites
construction workers
modern and contemporary art
skyscrapers
topography (image-making)
urban environments

3 Related Resources

New York City
(Part of 3 Learning Collections)
The Modern Metropolis
(Part of 7 Learning Collections)
Work and Workers
(Part of 9 Learning Collections)

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved