Harry Sternberg (1904 – 2001)
Bethlehem Steel in Moonlight (aka. Steel Mill). Aquatint and etching. 1937.
Signed edition of 15 (according to Charles Marvin Fairchild Memorial Gallery, Georgetown University), in addition to an unsigned (plated-signed only) edition of 75 published by the American Artists Group.
In the collection of the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (plate signed), the Philadelphia Art Museum (plate signed), the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (plate signed), the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (plate signed), the Art Museum of Syracuse University, and the Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University.
This Depression-era etching and aquatint represents a mature example of Harry Sternberg’s industrial imagery and is widely associated with the Bethlehem Steel works in Pennsylvania. Produced in 1937, the composition reflects the social and psychological tensions surrounding American heavy industry during the Great Depression, emphasizing scale, enclosure, and atmosphere through Sternberg’s controlled use of aquatint and etched line. The work emerged directly from Sternberg’s 1936 Guggenheim Fellowship, during which he lived and worked among steelworkers and miners in order to study firsthand the “rhythm and power” of American industry—an immersive approach that grounded his industrial imagery in lived experience rather than abstract symbolism.
Technically, the print exemplifies Sternberg’s mature command of aquatint, using tonal density and granular texture to dissolve distinctions between smoke, sky, and structure and to create a nocturnal atmosphere that extends beyond topographical description. The steel mill is rendered as an autonomous, depopulated presence—monumental and enclosing—reflecting a broader shift in American printmaking away from heroic depictions of industry toward more ambivalent, psychologically charged interpretations of labor and power.
Sternberg’s industrial prints from this period are central to his position within American social realism and WPA-era printmaking. Most recorded impressions of this work appearing at auction are plate-signed only, reflecting their distribution through the American Artists Group. The present impression is distinguished by being both plate-signed and hand-signed by the artist, a combination encountered infrequently within this body of work and indicative of its rarity.
Harry Sternberg (1904 – 2001)
Bethlehem Steel in Moonlight (aka. Steel Mill). Aquatint and etching. 1937.
Signed edition of 15 (according to Charles Marvin Fairchild Memorial Gallery, Georgetown University), in addition to an unsigned (plated-signed only) edition of 75 published by the American Artists Group.
In the collection of the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (plate signed), the Philadelphia Art Museum (plate signed), the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (plate signed), the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (plate signed), the Art Museum of Syracuse University, and the Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University.
This Depression-era etching and aquatint represents a mature example of Harry Sternberg’s industrial imagery and is widely associated with the Bethlehem Steel works in Pennsylvania. Produced in 1937, the composition reflects the social and psychological tensions surrounding American heavy industry during the Great Depression, emphasizing scale, enclosure, and atmosphere through Sternberg’s controlled use of aquatint and etched line. The work emerged directly from Sternberg’s 1936 Guggenheim Fellowship, during which he lived and worked among steelworkers and miners in order to study firsthand the “rhythm and power” of American industry—an immersive approach that grounded his industrial imagery in lived experience rather than abstract symbolism.
Technically, the print exemplifies Sternberg’s mature command of aquatint, using tonal density and granular texture to dissolve distinctions between smoke, sky, and structure and to create a nocturnal atmosphere that extends beyond topographical description. The steel mill is rendered as an autonomous, depopulated presence—monumental and enclosing—reflecting a broader shift in American printmaking away from heroic depictions of industry toward more ambivalent, psychologically charged interpretations of labor and power.
Sternberg’s industrial prints from this period are central to his position within American social realism and WPA-era printmaking. Most recorded impressions of this work appearing at auction are plate-signed only, reflecting their distribution through the American Artists Group. The present impression is distinguished by being both plate-signed and hand-signed by the artist, a combination encountered infrequently within this body of work and indicative of its rarity.