Sam Kweskin was an illustrator who gained fame at Marvel Comics starting in the 1950’s. His daughter Jean sent us a series of paintings and sketches that Kweskin made of the Upper West Side, where he lived for about 40 years. He first lived on 102nd and Riverside Drive and then moved to 88th and Broadway.
Jean said he loved to walk through the neighborhood with friends. Sam Kweskin died in 2005.
See a few of his comic strips here, his Wikipedia entry here, and his Marvel page here. Some sketches and paintings are below:
Looking South from Broadway at Verdi Square (72nd street) in 2000.
The First Baptist Church at 79th street and Broadway in 1992.
A sketch of the 72nd street station, 1992.
Self-portrait.
I love these! I’m so glad Jean sent them in.
awesome.
BTW. the corner of 72nd and Bway (now the high-rise with trader joes) was a lovely little building that deserved to be included in the landmarked district.
as the painting clearly shows.
you support landmarking?!?! it’s an intrusion on the free market!!
To say nothing of an imposition on real-estate developers!
It stifles economic development and hurts the job creators!
thank you Avi — these historical features are great. thanks to Jean.
are there more of these sketches we can look at? any of w68th and columbus?
Thank you, Jean and Avi, for sharing. Beautiful work.
Thank you Avi..
Thanks so much to Jean for sending this to me. He was soooo talented. The whole family is!
Thanks for posting these wonderful paintings and sketches of our beloved UWS.
Thank you Cathie!