About this work
At the heart of this radiant, 60-by-50-inch oil on canvas stands a wedding — but not just any wedding. A wealthy and glamorous couple occupies center stage beneath a red silk canopy and carpet, surrounded by figures that include other artists, the Stettheimer sisters themselves, and heroes of the day such as Charles Lindbergh.
Floating above the scene are the names of New York's most exclusive shops and establishments — "Tiffany's" spelled out in jeweled letters, "Altman's" shaped from fine home furnishings — so that commerce and ceremony become indistinguishable acts of devotion. At the right edge, Stettheimer and her sisters step out of a limousine near Augustus Saint-Gaudens's gilded Sherman Monument, inserting themselves into the spectacle with characteristic wit. The composition is dense, theatrical, and dazzling — every inch of canvas working toward its central satirical proposition.
*The Cathedrals of Fifth Avenue* is an oil on canvas completed in 1931, the second in Stettheimer's four-part Cathedrals series. In this series of monumental paintings executed between 1929 and 1942, Stettheimer created extraordinary composite visions of New York's economic, social, and cultural institutions.
The term "cathedral" is religious, but instead of worshipping gods, Americans here worship art, money, spectacle, and society — and nowhere is that more sharply observed than on Fifth Avenue, where the rituals of marriage and shopping blur into a single ceremony. Turning her gaze to the avenue, Stettheimer treats the spectacles of high society and consumerism with affectionate humor — a balance few painters have managed with such apparent ease. The canvases are densely populated with figures both known and anonymous, grand architectural elements, textual flourishes, and both obvious and enigmatic symbols.
This is a painting for rooms that can hold a conversation. Its scale and visual complexity reward sustained looking — the longer you sit with it, the more figures, jokes, and ironies surface. It suits a well-lit living room or library where it can serve as a genuine focal point rather than background decoration. The viewer it speaks to most directly is one who knows their city, appreciates wry intelligence dressed up as festivity, and enjoys art that has something to say. The original lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but as a fine art print it carries all of Stettheimer's electric color and crowded joy into any domestic space willing to meet it on its own exuberant terms.
