TRAM IN BASEL, SWITZERLAND

Tram in Basel,  23 x 29 inch oil and pencil on paper painting by George C. Clark   PRINT AVAILABLE

I liked the look of the four-wheeled streetcars they had in Basel, but they wouldn't hold still long enough for me to draw them, so I painted this from my photographs.  The bearded passenger with the hat is a self-portrait.  This painting was accepted at one of the juryings for the Art Rental and Sales Gallery of the Art Institute of Chicago, back in the days when the museum supported and exhibited Chicago artists.  A few months later I was walking down Michigan Avenue and I glanced into the plate glass front of the Michigan Avenue National Bank, and there in the lobby on a big square pillar facing me was Tram in Basel.  The bank kept it for two rental periods, then returned it to the gallery where it was purchased by a private collector.  Unframed 12 x 16 inch prints of this painting are available for $10 at the Museum Store of the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Illinois.