Down at Jimmy Kelly's

“Not for debutantes!”—that’s how advertisements for the Greenwich Village nightclub Jimmy Kelly’s warned potential clientele about its wild performances, such as this strip show. Everyday life and popular amusements in New York gave Reginald Marsh endless subjects for his paintings, watercolors, and prints. Marsh often included portraits in these works, using the individuality of the faces to heighten the immediacy of the spectacle. The man with the mustache in the center of this painting may be art critic Lloyd Goodrich, a close friend of the artist.

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