Ruth Lewis (1905 – 1963)

NY Skyline, 1942, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 24 x 20 inches, dated and titled verso, together with Lewis’ address

$6500

NY Skyline depicts a typical array of Manhattan skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of New York life, including an employment agency, a chop suey restaurant, and a pair of aircraft flying overhead. What separates Lewis’ painting from the ordinary WPA Era view of the city, is the presence of a corn field in the foreground, something that is better suited for the expanses of Benton’s Missouri or Curry’s Kansas. Painted during World War II, Lewis depicted a victory garden that appears nearly ready for harvest. In response to the attack and Pearl Harbor and the United States' rapid mobilization and shift to a wartime economy, civic and governmental organizations encouraged citizens to plant fruit and vegetable gardens in open spaces in the countryside, as well as the city, to help ensure the American people had enough to eat. The victory garden movement also had the benefit of teaching practical skills and instilling a greater feeling of self-reliance and patriotism. In response to a group of boys who had successfully sought permission to start a victory garden on city-owned property in Brooklyn, Mayor LaGuardia wrote, “while I know you have had fun, I also know that you are making a splendid contribution to insure Victory to our beloved Country. I might also add that the knowledge you have gained could not be learned in any classroom, and the reward for your efforts [is] something invaluable that can never be taken from you.” After an initially slow start, New York eventually had over 400,000 victory gardens by 1944 and Lewis has done an admirable job of depicting one of them in the heart of midtown.

Ruth Lewis was a New York-based American Scene and modernist painter. Born in New York City, Lewis studied at the Art Students League, and with Francis Criss, Sidney Laufman, and Moses and Raphael Soyer. She was an active member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, Audubon Artists, Brooklyn Society of Artists, and New York Society of Women Artists, where she served as Vice President. Lewis exhibited extensively in the New York area during the 1940s and 50s, including at the Society of Independent Artists, the American British Art Center and with her member organizations. She won multiple prizes with the National Association of Women Artists and showed at the Everhart Museum of Art, which still holds examples of her work. Lewis exhibited commercially with Norlyst Gallery and DeMotte Gallery, both in New York. She is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.