Stairway and balcony, study for "Interior of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in 14th Street"

In the pictureThis is the same stairway as in the pencil study, but a woman seen from behind has been added on the left. Wearing a trimmed hat and a pleated dress puffed out at the back, she grips the handrail as she climbs, her train long enough to cover several steps. In the middle of the landing balustrade hangs an oval portrait frame, with two white columns standing beneath it. The walls are crowded with five or six framed pictures showing a woman in white, a seated figure, and others. Gray washes of ink thinned with water build the light and shade, and the signature and date are at lower left.

Background1880 was the year the museum left its 14th Street mansion and moved to its building in Central Park. Over the stair composition he had worked out in a graphite and chalk study, Waller laid in light and shade with India ink wash and added a single visitor, coming a step closer to the oil painting he finished the next year, Interior of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in 14th Street. With a person in the scene, the size of the stairway becomes tangible, and the old practice of hanging pictures close together on every wall is clearer than in the pencil version. At 40.0×28.9 cm it is slightly larger than the pencil study, and it too entered the collection in 1912 through the Rogers Fund.

Puzzle tipThe darkest masses are the woman's dress and the thick handrail. Fit these two first and the left half takes shape. Next come the oval frame in the center, the two white columns, and the straight edges of the frames on the walls. Each framed picture shows different figures, which helps sort out their positions. The pale gray wall and the floor at lower right can be told apart top from bottom by differences in tone, and the white margin around the outside completes the border last. 48 pieces suits it.