Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan

Front / Recto

• Title Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan
• Negative Date March 20, 1936
• Print Date 1936–55
• Medium Gelatin silver print
• Dimensions Image 15 3/16 × 19 1/2" (38.6 × 49.5 cm)
  Mount 15 7/16 × 19 13/16" (39.2 × 50.4 cm)
  
• Place Taken New York
• Credit Line Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Mr. Robert C. Weinberg, by exchange
• MoMA Accession Number 1600.2001
• Copyright © 2015 Berenice Abbott/Commerce Graphics

Back / Verso

• Mount Type Mount (original)
• Marks and Inscriptions Signed in pencil on mount verso, bottom left: Berenice Abbott.
• Provenance Provenance: The artist, New York; to Ed Landin [1]; to Pauline Strasmich, Somerset, Mass., c. 1970 [2]; to Lee Gallery, Winchester, Mass., July 2, 1997 [3]; purchased by Thomas Walther, September 1997 [4]; purchased by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001.
  [1] MacGill/Walther 2001(3), p. 1.
  [2] Ibid.
  [3] Ibid.
  [4] Lee Gallery invoice, September 5, 1997; and Lee inventory no. Q1529.

Surface

• Surface Sheen Semireflective
• Techniques Mount
  Retouching (additive)
  Enlargement
  
• PTM
  

  Detail view of the recto of the artwork made using reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) software, which exaggerates subtle surface details and renders the features of the artwork plainly visible. Department of Conservation, MoMA

Paper Material

• Format Imperial
• UV Fluorescence Recto negative
  Verso no data
• Fiber Analysis No fiber data available
• Material Techniques Developing-out paper
  
• XRF
  No XRF data available

In Context

Related Images

Spread from Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland. Changing New York. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1939. Right: Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan. © 2014 Berenice Abbott/Commerce Graphics

Historical Publications

• “A Woman Photographs the Face of a Changing City." Life, January 3, 1938, p. 44 (as The Vanishing Splendor of Victorian Fifth Avenue Is Preserved by Berenice Abbott’s Camera).

  Abbott, Berenice, and Elizabeth McCausland. Changing New York, pl. 48 (as Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan). New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1939.

Related People

• Artist

  • Berenice Abbott
    

Related Links

• Cultural Hubs New York
  
• Publications Changing New York (Abbott), 1939