Calder Foundation

The Eclipse

Date 1925
Media
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
35 3⁄4" × 60"
Collection
Calder Foundation, New York
Chronology  2
24 January 1925

A total eclipse of the sun is visible from the northern part of Manhattan. Along with thousands of New Yorkers, Calder travels uptown, stopping at the steps of Columbia University to watch. He makes The Eclipse, an oil painting of the scene.

6–29 March 1925

Calder exhibits The Eclipse in the Ninth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York. In the exhibition catalogue he lists his address as 119 East Tenth Street, where he periodically lives with his parents.

Works / Oil Painting 81
Related Timeline
1898–1925 Early Development

Alexander Calder created works of art throughout his childhood. In his twenties, he moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League. He worked concurrently at the National Police Gazette, illustrating sporting events and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and he made hundreds of brush drawings of animals at the Bronx and Central Park zoos. During this period, he commonly used sheet metal and wire for other projects.