Bellows became known early in his career for his uncompromising depictions of New York City, where he studied art and lived for 20 years until his death in 1925. As a major figure in the Ashcan School of urban realists, Bellows’s work captured the raw reality of everyday life in the city. This painting shows the corner of Madison Square at Broadway and Twenty-Third Street, which was notorious for its glut of advertising signs, including the city’s first electric sign.