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Open 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Visit
Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Admission is always free

6th and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20565

Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights
Starting June 3
Exhibitions & Events
Featured event:

Block Party
Join us June 6
Art & Artists
Open Call

Artists Reimagining the Collection
Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Chance Meeting

1940-1941

Martin Lewis

Associated Names

Martin Lewis

Artist, American, born Australia, 1881 - 1962

Society of American Graphic Artists

Publisher

The image shows two people in a nighttime street scene. The man stands with his hands in his pockets, looking at the woman. He has short, slicked-back hair, and is wearing a shirt with rolled-up sleeves and high-waisted pants. The woman leans against stacked crates, with one arm extended behind her. A light source creates a contrast, making her features less defined. She wears a knee-length dress and appears to be wearing heels. Crates with signs are behind her, with cloth draped in the shop window. The street is dimly lit with shop signs, one reading "7 UP." In the background, a couple walks away under more shop lights.

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Artwork overview

Medium

drypoint in black on laid paper
Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Society of American Etchers, Inc.)
Dimensions

plate: 26.67 × 18.89 cm (10 1/2 × 7 7/16 in.)
sheet: 39.21 × 27.15 cm (15 7/16 × 10 11/16 in.)
Accession Number

2015.19.515
Catalogue Raisonné

McCarron 1995, no. 131

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1941; acquired 2015 by the Natioanl Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1981

Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1981-1983, pp. 138-139, repro

2020

American Modernism, National Gallery of Art, Washington, February 20–March 17, 2020 and June 18, 2021–March 2, 2022.

Bibliography

1995

McCarron, Paul. The Prints of Martin Lewis: A Catalogue Raisonné. Bronxville, New York: M. Hausberg, 1995, pp. 222-223, no. 131.

Inscriptions

lower left in plate: ML; lower right in graphite: Martin Lewis-

Wikidata ID

Q77008620

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