This image of a downtrodden family making their way through a landscape that combines urban and rural elements has the haunting quality of a nightmare. It emphasizes the misery that workers across the country experienced during the Great Depression. Mitchell Siporin was sympathetic to these workers and felt a connection with them as a Jewish man whose family had suffered and been forced to leave their homeland. He once said: “I have known depression and war and lived in other countries than my own. Everything I have seen and felt I have [hoped would] … vindicate and reinforce my artistic ideas …” (O’Toole, Mitchell Siporin: The Early Years 1930 – 1950, 1990)
- Title
-
Back of the Yards
- Artist
- Date
- 1938
- Location
- Dimensions
- 24 1⁄8 x 36 1⁄8 in. (61.3 x 91.7 cm)
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Transfer from General Services Administration
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on canvas
- Classifications
- Keywords
-
- New Deal – Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project – Illinois
- Architecture Exterior – industry – railroad yard
- Figure group – family
- Architecture Exterior – domestic – house
- Occupation – industry – railroad
- Object Number
-
1971.447.83
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
