The Emerald Tower
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Modernizing the Urban Landscape
By the late 1920s, signs of modernization and industrialization were intruding on the residential neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, where Isabel Lydia Whitney grew up. The Emerald Tower and The Blue Peter are part of a series of works Whitney painted about 1927 of the changing area. Exhibited in 1928, the series was praised for its honest depiction of the American scene and “the poignancy of transition.”
In The Emerald Tower, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge is relegated to the far distance, and the painting is dominated instead by the new Squibb building, part of a manufacturing plant for a pharmaceutical company. The masts, smokestacks, and rigging seen in The Blue Peter hint at the encroachment of waterfront commerce.
Caption
Isabel Lydia Whitney (American, 1884–1962). The Emerald Tower, 1927–1928. Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in. (61 x 45.7 cm) Frame: 27 x 21 x 2 in. (68.6 x 53.3 x 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. James H. Hayes, 54.18. Orphaned work. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
The Emerald Tower
Date
1927–1928
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
24 x 18 in. (61 x 45.7 cm) Frame: 27 x 21 x 2 in. (68.6 x 53.3 x 5.1 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right: "Isabel Whitney"
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. James H. Hayes
Accession Number
54.18
Rights
Orphaned work
After diligent research, the Museum is unable to locate contact information for the artist or artist's estate, or there are no known living heirs.Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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