In Central Park

Mabel Dwight|WPA

1938 · Lithograph · Drawings and Prints

In 1935, when she was sixty years old, Dwight joined the Federal Art Project, an initiative under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal that employed out-of-work artists during the Great Depression. She created In Central Park and several other lithographs under the auspices of the Graphic Arts Division of the Federal Art Project in New York. Because she suffered from chronic asthma, project administrators delivered heavy lithographic limestones to her fourth-floor walk-up in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan so that she could work from home. She created a number of prints after sketches made on her explorations of New York, including this scene of people lounging beside the Gothic Bridge, which traverses Central Park’s bridle path.

Artist

Mabel Dwight|WPA

Date

1938

Medium

Lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940