Rago Auctions

Daniel Greene is considered to be one of the foremost pastel artists in the United States. His works are in over 700 public and private collections worldwide and he painted portraits of countless important sitters including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Commander Astronaut Walter Shirra, Jr., Ayn Rand, Natalie Portman, Bob Schieffer, Bryant Gumbel, and numerous congressmen, governors, judges, educators, and industrialists.

Greene also completed many series, one of them subway-themed. In a 2018 interview he explained the impetus behind this specific series:

The admonition “paint what you know” led me to re-exploring familiar subjects — subways, auctions and carnivals. All of these subjects are a part of my visual experience. I lived in New York City for 25 years before moving to North Salem which is 50 miles outside of the city, and one cannot help but be influenced by the immediate environment of the metropolis that is as exciting as New York City. I started riding the subways in 1953 when I moved to New York City to attend The Art Students League. While riding, I couldn't help noticing the beautiful mosaics that appeared in the stations that are part of the subway system. 

One day, I observed a couple sitting together in front of one of the mosaics at a station and I thought to myself, “that would make an interesting painting.” I didn't act on it at that time. But then 40 something years later, I went back to the subway to collect information for that particular painting that I had been thinking about doing for so many years. I found to my surprise that there was a mass of material. There were dozens upon dozens of stations that had beautiful mosaics and that the possibilities for interesting paintings and intricate mosaics was endless. So, I began doing the painting I intended to do with several figures and then I continued to do other subjects in the subway because it was all so dramatic. To date, I have now done 121 paintings of subway settings.