Artwork
Little Falls, New Jersey
Little Falls, New Jersey is an unspecified painting by the American Impressionist artist Oscar Florianus Bluemner. It dates from 1917 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The work is classified as an abstraction, marking a departure from literal representation toward a formal exploration of form and color.
Created in 1917, Little Falls, New Jersey is an oil painting executed on a rectangular support measuring 37.5 cm in height and 50.4 cm in width. The work is classified as an abstraction, marking a departure from literal representation toward a formal exploration of form and color. Oscar Florianus Bluemner's handling of the medium emphasizes geometric structure and simplified shapes, characteristic of his modernist approach during this period. The composition relies on the interplay of these abstracted elements rather than detailed naturalistic depiction.
History & Provenance
Oscar Florianus Bluemner created the painting Little Falls, New Jersey in 1917. The work is an abstraction that entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains held. While the specific circumstances of its commission or its ownership history prior to the museum's acquisition are not detailed in the available records, the piece is firmly dated to its year of inception.
Oscar Florianus Bluemner's 1917 painting Little Falls, New Jersey is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work depicts an abstraction and measures 37.5 cm in height by 50.4 cm in width. While the artwork is confirmed to be part of the museum's holdings, the provided sources do not specify an accession or inventory number, nor do they list any exhibition history for the piece.
Overview
Created in 1917 by Oscar Florianus Bluemner, a Prussian‑born artist who built his career in the United States, Little Falls, New Jersey is an early twentieth‑century cityscape now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work belongs to the period when American painters were exploring Impressionist ideas while moving toward a more abstract visual language.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas presents a street scene from the town of Little Falls, New Jersey, populated by a row of buildings that dominate the composition. By simplifying forms and emphasizing the interplay of light and shadow, Bluemner suggests the dynamism of an industrializing town without committing to a literal, photographic rendering.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Oscar Bluemner (June 21, 1867 – January 12, 1938), born Friedrich Julius Oskar Blümner and after 1933 known as Oscar Florianus Bluemner, was a Prussian-born American Modernist painter.
