In 1915, after the outbreak of World War I, Albert Gleizes left France along with his wife and set a course for the United States. While colleagues such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia were introduced to the world of Dada, Gleizes continued down the path of Cubism, albeit focusing on outlines and wide color planes that were either lively or faint. Produced during his first stay in New York, this drawing summarizes said characteristics and reflects a European native’s fascination with the city: its modernity, its streets filled with skyscrapers, an airplane in flight, and a hot air balloon; all of which he interpreted in a Cubist style.

The drawing has a direct relationship with the oil painting titled Broadway that Gleizes produced in 1915, and with part of Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay’s work, in terms of its exaltation of the great metropolis. The advertisements that Gleizes included in the painting, reinterpreting Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque’s papier collé, along with the circles in the shape of tree-tops or automobile wheels, accentuate the sense of movement, contrasting with the balanced austerity of colors.