Tempera on panel, 59” x 35”
Via artchive
"I like to go to Coney Island because of the sea, the open air, and the crowds—crowds of people in all directions, in all positions, without clothing, moving—like the great compositions of Michelangelo and Rubens." --Reginald Marsh
The New York Times took yesterday’s heat as the opportunity to run its annual Coney Island photo on today’s front page. I like to think of it as just the latest installment in the long tradition of depicting the famed beach over the years.
You can see this image really large here. Read about "Weegee’s Day at the Beach" in Smithsonian and see more Coney Island images by the photographer.
Fortune has posted "To Heaven by Subway," an article about Coney Island, from its August 1938 issue. The above painting is by Robert Riggs, who illustrated the story.
From the same era as the Marsh and Riggs
paintings, is this 1932 picture by Mabel Dwight.
View of the beach from the air, Life, August 12, 1940.
Via Airdee scanzen
Reginald Marsh, Coney Island Scene, c. 1932.
University of Virginia
Reginald Marsh, Coney Island Beach, etching, 1934.
It looks like Marsh was actually standing in the water when
he painted In the Surf, Coney Island, 1946.
Via All Art News
In extreme heat, it was as crowded under the boardwalk as it was on the beach. Weegee, 1940.
George Tooker, 1947.
Christies
Princeton Library
Postcard, A Typical Crowd on a Hot Day at Coney Island, N.Y.
via Cardcow.com
