Tattoo and Haircut

Arts of the Americas

1932

Reginald Marsh (American, 1898–1954)

One of the foremost realists of the 1930s, Reginald Marsh was fascinated by public behavior and excited by the commotion of New York City. Tattoo and Haircut portrays a busy scene of people talking, walking, and loitering below the massive structure of the elevated train that ran over the Bowery, then an area notorious for brothels, tattoo parlors, and transitory lodging. Marsh filled every inch of the composition with details, ranging from architectural elements to signs and text. Marsh used tempera—a medium that dries quickly—almost as if he were drawing. He added successive layers of muted colors resulting in a mottled, uneven surface that emphasizes the gritty nature of this world. His rapid, sketchy technique thus reinforced his presentation of the subject as cacophonous, dilapidated, and dim yet vibrantly alive.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Reginald Marsh
Title: Tattoo and Haircut
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1932
Medium: Egg tempera on Masonite
Dimensions: 118.1 × 121.6 cm (46 1/2 × 47 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Ludgin
Reference Number: 1947.39
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Reginald Marsh / Art Students League, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“John S. Curry and Reginald Marsh,” New York Tribune, April 8, 1933.
“Reginald Marsh’s Bowery,” New York Sun, April 8, 1933.
F. A. Blossom, “Reginald Marsh as a Painter,” Creative Art 12 (1933), ill. p. 262, as Tattoo–Shave–Haircut.
Robert B. Harshe, Catalogue of a Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Lent from American Collections, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), 73, cat. 598.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 295.
John FitzMaurice Mills, “Art Forum,” The Irish Times (Jan. 11, 1966), p. 8, ill.
Matthew Baigell, The American Scene: American Painting of the 1930s (Praeger Publishers, 1974), pl. 2.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 185–87, cat. 82 (ill.).
Carmen Nyssen, “Willy Moskowitz: Bowery Barber-Tattoo Artist,” Buzzworthy Tattoo History, accessed September 24, 2020, https://www.buzzworthytattoo.com/tattoo-history-research-articles/willy-moskowitz-bowery-barber-tattoo-artist/, as Tattoo, Shave, Haircut (ill.).

Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, Paintings by Reginald Marsh, Apr. 3–22, 1933, cat. 1, as Tattoo and Haircut.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Oct. 31, 1933, cat. 598.
New York, John Wanamaker New York, The Wanamaker Regional Art Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Oct. 13–Nov. 3, 1934, cat. 157.
New York, Ferargil Galleries, American Paintings Summer 1943, July 19–Sept. 15, 1943, cat. 27.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Reginald Marsh, Sept. 21–Nov. 6, 1955, cat. 9, ill., Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Nov. 27–Dec. 25, 1955, Detroit Institute of Art, Jan. 13–Feb. 12, 1956, City Art Museum, St. Louis, Mar. 2–Apr. 1, 1956, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Apr. 15–May 20, 1956, Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, June 10–July 8, 1956, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, July 25–Aug. 26, 1956, San Francisco Museum of Art, Sept. 13–Oct. 14, 1956.
IL, Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, A Century of American Painting: Masterpieces Loaned by The Art Institute of Chicago, June 10–16, 1957, no. 24.
Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].
New York, Gallery of Modern Art, Reginald Marsh, Dec. 1, 1964–Jan. 29, 1965, no cat.
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Amerikanische malerei, 1930–1980, Nov. 14, 1981–Jan. 31, 1982, cat. 141, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection, Sept. 11–Oct. 31, 1982, no cat.

Frank K. M. Rehn, New York, by 1933 [Harshe, 1933, 73]; sold to John Wanamaker, New York, by Oct. 1934; [Rehn Gallery again?]; [Ferargil Galleries in 1943?]; to Mr. and Mrs. Earle Ludgin, Chicago; given to Art Institute in 1947.

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