​

Artist: EYVIND EARLE, American 1916-2000

Title: VIEW UNDER THE BRIDGE

Date: 1943

Medium: Oil on Canvas / Size: 156” x 60”

​

View Under The Bridge was commissioned in 1943 by thePulitzer Prize winning American poet, William Carlos Williams and was displayed in his Rutherford, New Jersey home.   William’s work championed everyday working people, as reflected in his poem Paterson. William’s nephew was Eyvind Earl a relationship that exposed Earle to William’s circle of poets and painters, like Pablo Picasso, Marsden Hartley, Charles Sheller and Charles Demuth.

The painting is divided in three levels. The foreground portrays the common workingman in modern city life painted with an expressive broad brush defining the figure.

Next, the middle ground displays New York City skyline like a parade of empire buildings and smoke stacks boasting industrial and technological achievements. The third level reveals a bridge, which frames the city view and above a crisscross of diagonal cables open to blue skies.

​

Before: The canvas painting was cut from its original stretcher and folded, with minor tears throughout and a large missing area (6” x 20”) lower left. The paint surface was dirty, discolored and scratched.

​

​

Treatment: The painting was unfolded and surface cleaned. Missing canvas was measured and matching canvas inserted into loss areas. A panel support structure was designed and built with Belgian linen attached to the support surface. The painting was successfully lined to linen and support panel. Losses were mended with canvas sections, then areas were filled and inpainted followed by varnish application, completing the restoration of View Under The Bridge.