The Way the City is Built is a painting by Charles Henry Miller and held by the Brooklyn Museum:

Charles Miller had a preservationist’s interest in the historic buildings and landmarks that were rapidly disappearing throughout New York and Long Island. This Harlem scene represents the modern urban landscape in transition: a hill on which stands an old cottage is being razed for the construction of more multistory tenements like the ones at right. Miller’s unvarnished realism and broad brushwork reveal the influence of progressive trends in European art, which he would have observed while studying at the Royal Academy in Munich after abandoning a medical career in 1867.

ARTIST: Charles Henry Miller, American, 1842–1922

MEDIUM: Watercolor with graphite pencil underdrawing on moderately textured, moderately thick, cream, wove paper (cold-pressed watercolor paper)

DATE: 1877

DIMENSIONS: 13 x 18 1/2 in.

The Lenox Lounge

As seen on Lenox Ave.