The Precisionist Aesthetic of John Held Jr.'s Cityscapes John Held, Jr., was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a father who was a copperplate engraver and illustrator. While still in his teens, Held began his illustration career after only a brief apprenticeship with a sculptor. He moved to New York and continued working as a commercial artist. Held’s illustrations defined the “Roaring Twenties Jazz Age.” They were humorous, risqué, and bold. The flapper became associated with Held’s drawings of a woman with a high hemline, cloche hat, and long, thin limbs. When the Depression hit, demands for his flapper art diminished, and he turned to other forms of art. At the height of Held’s career he was extremely successful and earned over a million dollars a year, had a home in Miami, a penthouse in New York, and a 156-acre estate in Westport, Connecticut, with its own zoo and golf course. From 1934-1936, Held’s view of the world turned more sober. During this time, he created a suite of strangely wistful views of the Manhattan skyline. Most of the watercolors were painted during sunrise and sunset hours, including Manhattan Skyline. The upper stories of a building on Sixth Avenue near Central Park afforded Held a high vantage point. From this perspective, the artist transforms the massive New York skyscrapers into flat patterns of right angles and colored shadows. Making liberal use of the white paper, Held defines the buildings’ sunlit façade. Shades of deep purple and blue with a tinge of red delineate the shadowed surfaces. Armitage, Shelley and Laurinda S. Dixon, John Held, Jr.: Illustrator of the Jazz Age. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989. (http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/32778/) "John Held, Jr.'s third wife was my great aunt Margaret Bolten (née Janes) Held. John died the year I was born so I never knew him, but spent a good deal of time with Aunt Marge. She was a wonderful person, funny and good natured. Her small NYC then CT apartment was full of things made by John. In addition to the illustrations he was best known for, he had a very distinct mastery with watercolor and did many cityscapes of NYC. He also created and painted folk art furniture - and miniature (dollhouse sized) reproductions of them, which I adored playing with as a child, and was lucky enough to inherit them after Marge's death." (Melissa McCobb Hubbell, http://inspirational-imagery.blogspot.nl/2010/08/john-held-jr.html)