During the late 19th century, many painters found jobs as staff illustrators or sketch reporters for illustrated magazines and periodicals. Shinn, a Philadelphia-based artist, moved to New York in 1897 to pursue work at one of the city’s prominent publishing houses. To promote his talents, he created a portfolio of pastels depicting scenes of everyday urban life, several of which he exhibited in 1900 at the New York gallery Boussod, Valadon & Co.

Believed to be part of that exhibition, this pastel portrays workers waiting for an East River ferry on a cold winter’s day. Shinn had experienced several unusually harsh winters in the city, and he created a number of works showing the disruptions caused by the intense weather. To add drama to this scene, he relied on the dramatic curvature of the Brooklyn Bridge to create a strong sense of spatial recession and lateral thrust that contrasts with the static, waiting figures.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)