This is an original oil painting on canvas by noted painter and illustrator Morris Hall Pancoast (American, 1877-1963). Born in Salem, New Jersey in 1877, Pancoast began taking classes at age twenty at the Pennsylvania Academy, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. His educational pursuits later took him to Paris in 1902 where he trained at the Académie Julian under Jean Paul Laurens. Following three years of study in Europe, Pancoast returned to the United States where he worked as an illustrator for the "Philadelphia Inquirer" from 1905-1907 and as a cartoonist at the North American from 1907-1919. The artist and his wife moved to New York City in the 1920s, though the couple summered in Rockport, Massachusetts. Pancoast was a frequent exhibitor at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1911 and continued to show until 1934.

This framed oil painting features a snowy rooftop view of 12th Street in New York City with the silhouetted Chrysler building looming in the background. The cityscape is rather humanized by a figure seated in front of a window working under the inviting yellow glow of a lamp. Signed on the lower left.
Frame: 34 1/2 x 29 1/2"
Sight: 29 1/2 x 24 1/2"
Stretcher: 30 1/2 x 25 1/2"

The painted surface exhibits craquelure. Minor wear and paint loss to the frame.