Crescent Cityscapes Images of New Orleans from the Permanent Collection

Knute Heldner, French Quarter Rooftops, 1923, Oil on canvas, Roger Houston Ogden Collection

March 15 - July 13, 2025

Since its beginning, the City of New Orleans has been both a subject and a muse to generations of artists. Crescent Cityscapes draws primarily from the permanent collection of Ogden Museum of Southern Art to show how artists have portrayed the Crescent City through drawings, paintings, photographs and prints. From 19th century street scenes to contemporary abstractions, these works show the deep and lasting influence of the built environment and natural light of New Orleans upon the visual arts.

Much has been written about New Orleans’ impact on literature, music, film and food. Recognition for these contributions is indelibly connected to the national identity of this locale, and to how this most unique city is perceived by the entire world. This exhibition, however, considers the impact of the city itself on the visual arts, particularly as a muse for artists themselves. In this selection of works, it is not the people of New Orleans that take center stage (although they certainly play a supporting role), but the place itself. It is that slant of light through thick, humid air that one can almost hold. It is the stunning vista seen through lacey ironwork, along with the cracked sidewalks of urban entropy juxtaposed against the shock of new construction in the midst of history. It is the climbing vines and persistence of nature that threatens daily to swallow the urban landscape, giving way to leaning buildings saturated in Caribbean color. It is the very being of this tenuous and tenacious settlement, surrounded on all sides by water. It is a movable feast that has become the domain of New Orleans – the city itself as both setting and protagonist in this visual narrative, told by generations of artists past and present, and generations to come.