Jannelli immigrated to the United States from his native Italy in 1898. Settling in Newark, New Jersey, he taught for two decades at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art. Although he painted landscapes and portraits, his most distinctive works are his cityscapes in which he depicted vistas from roof-top vantage points. Among his most expansive images, this view spans a colorful "sea" of low Newark building tops, punctuated by treetops and water towers, extending to the taller structures of downtown Newark and beyond to the Manhattan skyline, where the silhouette of the Empire State Building can be discerned along with towering structures clustered around Wall Street. The distant form of the State of Liberty is visible in the right background. In such images, Jannelli reminds us of the quiet world of its own existing above the noise and bustle the urban street. (http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/vincent-jannelli-american-1882-1962-view-across-52-c-8c4b63aac4)