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Dispossessed
ca. 1938
Mervin Jules
Born: Baltimore, Maryland 1912
Died: Provincetown, Massachusetts 1994
tempera on cotton mounted on fiberboard
17 7/8 x 23 1/8 in. (45.4 x 58.7 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Charles G. Jules
1981.80.1
Smithsonian American Art Museum
4th Floor, Luce Foundation Center
Mervin Jules’s scenes of the urban homeless showed the desperation of people ruined by the Great Depression. Here, an elderly couple have lost their home and sit in despair among their possessions, out of work, old, and vulnerable. Their long faces and defeated poses express the depth of misery. A tray on the ground reflects a group of workers waiting in line, emphasizing the desperation of the times. Jules was committed to the social purpose of art, and although he confronted difficult issues, a curator described him in 1941 as having “an optimism, tempered with courage to face facts as they are . . . At the core of his optimism is respect for just people and their occupations.” (Harris, Mervin Jules: Exhibition of Paintings, 1941)
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Architecture Exterior - domestic - apartment
Cityscape - street
Figure group
Figure group - elderly
Object - furniture - bed
Object - furniture - chair
Object - furniture - chest
State of being - other - homeless
painting
authorities - attributes - objects - medium - paint - tempera
fabric - cotton
fiberboard - support added
About Mervin Jules
Born: Baltimore, Maryland 1912 Died: Provincetown, Massachusetts 1994
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