The American scene painter Carl Peters was born in Rochester, New York, where he first became interested in an American vernacular style. At the Art Students League in Manhattan, he honed a style informed by the Ashcan School and early modernism.

Although Peters spent much of his career in New York, he summered in the Cape Ann, Massachusetts area. This vibrant Gloucester, Massachusetts street scene must have been painted during one of those sojourns. Peters deftly evokes a sense of place with strongly geometric architecture in a brightly-hued palette, and peoples his scene with the bustling sense of small town life.

Peters won the prestigious Hallgarten Prize three times from the National Academy of Design, in 1926, 1928 and 1932. He also was commissioned to do WPA murals for the Federal Arts Project during the Depression.

Carl Peters work is held in a number of public collections, including the National Museum of American Art, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Memorial Art gallery, among others.