John Dos Passos, Union Square, Gouache, 1925–28

Dos Passos often gives the character artistic points of view. Here, the character notices color and stares "abstractedly". In the painting above, abstract city elements of typography, signs, lights, buildings, and machines, appear from a window view.

Annotation Sources: Pizer, Donald, et al. The Paintings and Drawings of John Dos Passos: A Collection and Study. Liverpool University Press, 2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ps32nh. Accessed 6 Nov. 2022.

John Dos Passos, Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn Watercolor, 1920–24

In this description, Dos Passos focuses on color and even makes up his own color names: skyblue, smokedsalmon, mustardyellow, and gingerbread-colored. Unlike other descriptions, this text is much softer, less violent and fragmented - similar to the painting above which takes on a softer, more conservative visual tone.

John Dos Passos, Jazz Funeral, Watercolor, 1925–28

Many characters in the novel are theater actors, performers, and vaudeville acts who regard the theater as both the epitome of success and a potential source of downfall. In this paintings' abstracted version of a jazz performance, the musicians and dancers are depicted as geometric shapes in motion, their faces brutal and absurd.

John Dos Passos, Smash-up, Gouache, 1925–28

The closing in of the walls here literally flattens Bud's perspective. Multiple things happen at once. This sense of simultaneity, fragmentation and dynamism are characteristic of Futurist and Cubist art which the painting above takes its inspiration from.

John Dos Passos, Factory, Goauche, 1925–28

Dos Passos often uses a pictorial visual language when describing the city. Like in the painting above, in this highlighted text, we get a strong sense of shape (square, tangled, blocks, sharp) and color (blue cobwebs, green shimmer, brickpurple).

John Dos Passos, Book cover design for Manhattan Transfer, Harper & Brothers, 1925

The years of the novel were a period of avant-garde artistic innovations such as Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism - the influence can be seen in Dos Passos' book cover design for the first edition. Complex, jagged forms of the urban world collide haphazardly, similar to the characters' journeys.

John Dos Passos, Working Boat Approaching Manhattan, Watercolor, 1920–24

Throughout the 1920s, New York City was Dos Passos' home base, although he traveled extensively. The image of the Brooklyn Bridge in the background foreshadows the character Bud's fate.

John Dos Passos, “The Blacksmith”, Watercolor, undated

This portrait by Dos Passos is not a direct reference to this text. However, the style conveyed here, simultaneously figurative and nonrepresentational, reflects the narrative structure of Manhattan Transfer.

John Dos Passos, Village and Countryside, Watercolor, undated

In the 1930s, Dos Passos returned to a more conservative and less experimental painting style. The dynamism of New York City is contrasted with this painting of a village and countryside.

John Dos Passos, New York City Street Scene, Watercolor, 1920–24

This painting depicts urban life ("the center of things") as both inspiring and harsh - buildings as planes of bright color and emotionless people in crowds. This duality is also seen in each character's journey. The painting was used as the book cover design for A Pushcart at the Curb (George H. Doran Company, 1922), Dos Passos' first poetry collection.

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