City Landscape

“City Landscape” uses a beautiful palette of earth tones set against concrete infrastructure, especially an overpass that curves across the sky. Beneath that new automotive world, a jumbled cluster of buildings appears at left. It's difficult to tell whether the road in the foreground--which takes up a large portion of the painting, almost like a river--is concrete or dirt. Regardless, no automobiles appear in the painting and the sidewalk edges flow organically. Perhaps this absence of movement and human actions is what led Sievan to envision the scene as a landscape. On the right side of the street, we see two people standing who match the painting's color scheme; however, on the opposite side of the street, two people wear white coats--maybe indicating a wealth gap. Faint lines across the center could be a train track, still carrying this variety of people who are traveling separately.

Sievan, Maurice (1898 - 1981)

Drexler, Nora (description)

Helquist, Morgan (photography)

New Deal Museum, Mount Morris NY

Object #FA 822

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Oil on canvas

30 x 24 in.