Don Arrives in New York
Don arrived in New York in late 1928. In one of the first letters he wrote back to Lydia (they were not married yet) he made his very first sketches of New York and Broadway. This style here is characteristic of early Freeman, before he studied with John Sloan at the Art Students League. Typically, it is done on paper with the letterhead of the hotel (Allerton House) where he happened to be staying. Click on the image to see more about the Art Students League and John Sloan.
In Don’s semi-autobiography Come One, Come All!, he tells of how he came to New York and his first years there. He writes:
“New York and I were rapidly becoming good friends; in fact, instead of feeling like a stranger, I began to feel as if we had known each other all our lives. Everyone was accepted on equal terms, and made you wonder where you’d been keeping yourself. But along with all this felicity went an inescapable obligation. I knew I had to do something in return for the privilege of being a part of such a family. Everything demanded to be recorded, and my own great worry was that the dime-store supply of sketchbooks might run out…”
