Reginald Marsh was an American painter, born in Paris, most notable for his depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Crowded Coney Island beach scenes, popular entertainments such as vaudeville and burlesque, women, and jobless men on the Bowery are subjects that reappear throughout his work. He painted in egg tempera and in oils, and produced many watercolors, ink and ink wash drawings, and prints.
Reginald Marsh (at left), Louis Bouche, and William Zorach
Marsh's murals in the rotunda of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, 1937
Sorting the Mail (1936), Mural in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
Unloading the Mail, Mural in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first century AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as poster paint is also often referred to as "tempera paint", although the binders in this paint are different from traditional tempera paint.
Crevole Madonna by Duccio, tempera with gold ground on wood, 1284, Siena
A 1367 tempera on wood by Niccolò Semitecolo
Pietro Lorenzetti's Tarlati polyptych, Tempera and gold on panel, 1320
Spanish, Altar Frontal with Christ in Majesty and the Life of Saint Martin, 1250, The Walters Art Museum