Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) was one of a group of Urban realist painters, known as the Fourteenth Street Group, devoted to creating honest portrayals of New York City street life. Marsh studied at the Art Students League in New York, with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Moses and Raphael Soyer, and Isabel Bishop. Marsh used his work to both celebrate and criticize urban life, painting the residents of the Bowery and Fourteenth Street. Marsh’s subjects included the working class peoples, burlesque dancers, and streetwalkers that inhabited the city’s subways, dance halls, and arcades.
Marsh is unique among his fellow Urban Realists in that he was greatly influenced by Renaissance and Baroque painting. This can be seen in the theatrical qualities of his works. Through his use of these stage-like settings, his energetic line, and his emphasis on movement, Marsh depicts the city as a place of constant energy and excitement. This energy and excitement is evident in the line, motion, and monumentality of the woman depicted in Street Girl. Marsh worked as an artist, educator and illustrator until his death in 1954.