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C h a p t e r 3 1902 Love and Marriage Although he was lonely, life at the Windermere suited Julian. It was close to the Art Students League, Central Park, and the Hudson River, and convenient to shopping and transportation. He particularly liked the views from his apartment window and from the building’s roof. A series of interesting drawings (sketches in pencil or ink) and paintings of Manhattan survive from 1901–1902 when Julian lived at the Windermere. A number of these reflect views from his room or the rooftop, where he frequently sought refuge from the hustle and bustle and crowding of the city and could enjoy the kind of distant views he loved so much in Texas. One can imagine Julian’s mood—alone and far from home in a snow-clad cityscape—and he seems to have spent a fair amount of time on the rooftop during the winter of 1901–1902. The earliest of Julian’s rooftop paintings, New York City in the Snow, 1901, has his signature on the front with the date below it, and must have been painted in November or December. It is inscribed on the back: “Looking from the window of my room north toward 9th Avenue.” This inscription has been read “4th Avenue,” but Julian’s 4s and 9s are easily and often confused because they look very similar, and a Fourth Avenue view would not have been possible from Julian’s room. The painting depicts the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, located at Columbus Avenue (Ninth Avenue) and Sixtieth Street, which would have been the view from his apartment looking northeast up Columbus Avenue . A pencil sketch entitled Overlooking the Hudson River from Windemeere [sic], N.Y., 1902 (figure 3.1) was the basis for another painting done that winter titled View of City Rooftops in Winter (figure 3.2), but, since the pencil sketch is dated 1902, that painting must have been done after New York City in the Snow, 1901.1 A third rooftop painting, Hudson River View (figures 3.3a and b), is often said to be unsigned, but is in fact signed “J.O.” on the back. Hudson River View is also usually assigned the date 1912 based on the inscription “9.7.12” painted on the back, but the numbers do not appear to be in Julian’s hand, were not painted in the same color, and are not associated with the signature, as they sit at a ninety degree angle to it. It is unclear what the numbers represent. This painting is also known as St. Christopher Street Ferry View, but we have been unable to determine where that title originated as it is not on the painting or the frame. Hudson River View seems to fit more logically with the rooftop views Julian painted in 1902, and probably dates to the fall of 1901 or the spring or summer of 1902, while he lived at the Windermere. In one of his letters home, Julian mentioned that near his apartment was a large natural gas storage building that dwarfs its surroundings: “The illumination of the city at night is very beautiful and brilliant, and is one of the sights to be sure and see. Up in this park [sic] of the town they still have the gas lights in the street and in the park. I have passed by the gas storage tanks and one of them is enormous.The three and four story houses along side of it looked small and insignificant.” Hudson River View may be the view from the roof of the Windermere looking past the gas storage building and across the Hudson River to New Jersey.2 Falling in Love In January 1902 at one of Kenyon Cox’s parties, Julian met Gertrude Shipman, a young woman who lived with her parents in an apartment that was also part of the Windermere complex. Julian was smitten and recorded the event in his journal: I have met a young girl who lives on the sixth floor of 406 W. 57 and who is the best girl, everything into consideration, that I have ever met and we have many pleasant times together. . . . It is strange how things happen when you least expect them. . . . I had no idea I should ever meet any of them, when on the first night I was over at the Coxes . . . here she came in and I was introduced. . . . Shipman is their name...

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