Avenue of the Allies (5th Avenue)

Anne Goldthwaite, 1918

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Artist: Anne Goldthwaite (American, 1869–1944)
Medium: Etching on paper
Size: plate: 7 7/8 x 6 in. (20.0 x 15.1 cm)
Museum: Smithsonian Institution
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

When Anne Goldthwaite was twenty-three years old, her conservative family supported her move from Alabama to New York City to pursue art because, they believed, she had passed the suitable age for marriage. She studied at the National Academy of Design for six years and then set off for Paris, joining writer Gertrude Stein's circle of progressive artists and intellectuals.

When the looming threat of World War I forced her return to New York, she exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show and eventually became a prominent instructor at the Art Students League. This print shows Goldthwaite's enthusiasm for abstract art, with gestural lines capturing the festive victory parades in Manhattan at the war's conclusion. She was equally bold in her politics, joining the women's suffrage movement, probably in reaction to the social restrictions of her upbringing in the Deep South.