Dusk On The Lower Broadway Analysis

Jonas Lie, Dusk on the lower Broadway

Jonas Lie had created “Dusk on the lower Broadway” in 1910 with short brushwork, and atmospheric rendering. Jonas Lie’s love for travel is what enlightened him to the works of Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse. In Dusk on the lower Broadway, just as the titles suggests, Lie captures the image of a busy New York afternoon on Broadway. Jonas Lie was rather famous in New York during this time, being most remembered for his paintings on the Panama Canal, which are now in the United States Military Academy at West Point. Looking more deeply into the painting, we can see that the painting shows a person (a child maybe) on the right-hand side trying to cross the busy street of Broadway.

Lie’s painting

Whilst the negative space capturing the beauty of New York itself with nature. Thus, creating a story of both beauty, and people’s responsibilities. The Negative space helps draw emphasis towards the focus point of the painting. Lie’s inclusion of shapes are concise, giving Lie’s main idea more creative structure.

The way in which Lie expresses himself in this painting is through “relatability”. This being that within his paintings he wants the viewer to be able to sympathize with the situation being shown in the painting. Sympathizing isn’t the focal point of Lie’s painting, but rather the ability to depict reality through his eyes, and introduce it to the viewer. Creating artwork that was easy to look at, but with enough depth to keep the viewer gazing was often the response Lie’s painting evoked, as intended.

Jonas Lie’s journey for adventure consisted not just artwork, but the urge to travel. It is with this vision Lie could perceive other cultures, and other’s “reality”, thus giving his paintings more substance, and power. Through the painting , we can see Lie’s reality, and immerse ourselves in the everyday commute of New