Bleecker Street Market

Artist Bela de Tirefort drew inspiration from the city streets, painting numerous New York scenes. Various websites date this view of Bleecker Street pushcarts to the 1940s, completely ignoring the year, "61", on the lower corner. 

MutualArt.Com

At that time there was talk of closing the Bleecker Street market. Perhaps that is why de Tirefort took brush to canvas,an attempt to capture a Village scene before it faded into history.

In the mid-30s, the market covered eleven city blocks with 120 licensed pushcart merchants.

When de Tirefort created this painting there were only ten merchants operating thirteen stands along two city blocks (Cornelia Street to Seventh Avenue).

Protests from Villagers saved the market for another decade or so. Did the number of pushcarts continue to decline or was it simply closed by the city? The answer is unclear.

In the background is bell tower of the Our Lady of Pompeii Church, still on the corner at Carmine Street.


Pushcarts on Bleecker Street

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

Sheridan Theatre

Hopper-Self Portrait 1906 (Wikipedia)

Edward Hopper

July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967

It was a short walk from Hopper's home on Washington Square to the Loew's Sheridan at  West 12 Street in Greenwich Village and from there to the Crawford Lunch (one of the inspirations for Nighthawks).

He loved going to the films. For Hopper, as for so many others, it was a place of refuge, an escape from the everyday.

“When I don’t feel in the mood for painting I go to the movies for a week or more. I go on a regular movie binge!"
--Edward Hopper, quote from the New York Times

Edward Hopper, Sheridan Theatre, 1937, from Artpedia

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy.