Subway

Lily Furedi, Subway, 1934, oil on canvas, 39 x 48 ¹⁄₄ in. (99.1 x 122.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1965.18.43

Artwork Details

Title: Subway
Artist: Lily Furedi
Date: 1934
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
1st Floor
/
South Wing
Dimensions: 39 x 48 ¹⁄₄ in. (99.1 x 122.6 cm.)
Credit Line: Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Figure group
Recreation — leisure — grooming
New Deal — Public Works of Art Project — New York City
Architecture — vehicle — subway
Recreation — leisure — conversation
State of being — other — sleep
Recreation — leisure — reading
Figure group
Object Number: 1965.18.43
Research Notes: 1965.18.43.pdf
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1965.18.43

Artwork Description

In this painting Lily Furedi boldly did something that few dare to do: she looked at people on the subway. She took the viewpoint of a seated rider gazing down the car at her fellow passengers. The Hungarian-born artist knew of the subway riders' customary avoidance of staring at one’s fellow riders; most people in her painting keep to themselves by hiding behind a magazine or newspaper, or by sleeping. Those who violate the unwritten rule do so furtively. A woman takes a quiet sidelong glance at the newspaper read by the man next to her, while a man steals a peek at a young woman applying lipstick. Only two women in the foreground, who obviously know each other, dare to look directly at each other as they talk companionably.

Furedi takes a friendly interest in her fellow subway riders, portraying them sympathetically. She focuses particularly on a musician who has fallen asleep in his formal working clothes, holding his violin case. The artist would have identified with such a New York musician because her father, Samuel Furedi, was a professional cellist.

1934: A New Deal for Artists exhibition label

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Hop aboard artist Lily Furedi’s Subway with Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator of 20th century art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Look closely at the choices Furedi makes in depicting a varied group of passengers on a New York City subway car in 1934. Learn more about the connection between this painting and the Public Works of Art Project, a federal program that supported artists during the Great Depression.

This video is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's ongoing series American Art Moments. Join a SAAM expert and go beyond the artwork label to discover the untold stories and rich connections represented in some of the museum's most iconic artworks.

VIRGINIA MECKLENBURG: "Subway" is one of my all-time favorite paintings, and it's by a woman named Lily Furedi who painted it in 1934 for a project sponsored by the federal government called the Public Works of Art project.

Unfortunately, we don't know nearly enough about Lily Furedi. There are only a handful of paintings that are known by her. She was from Hungary and came to the United States in 1927 when she was 31 years old and then moved to New York. She had become a naturalized American citizen, which allowed her to be part of the Public Works of Art project.

The government, when they hired these artists, asked them to paint some aspect of the American scene, the kind of people and life and situations that we would see around us if we were walking down the street in 1934.

One of the things that has always struck me about "Subway" is that it's like this little enclosed world with all sorts of fascinating individuals. Some of them are pairs. The two women on the right-hand corner of the painting are clearly engaged in conversation. There is a woman who's putting on her lipstick. Just beyond the woman putting on her lipstick are a man and a woman sitting in the same seat. And the woman, you can't tell whether she's actually looking at the man or possibly just reading over his shoulder as people do on Metro cars.

One of the things I also like a lot about the painting is the man with the violin case. Furedi came from a really distinguished family of musicians. Her father was a solo celloist and her uncle was a concert violinist. And I can't help but wonder if this is a nod to her uncle. He's dozing, as many of us do on the subway car, and he has on a black bow tie. So you wonder whether or not he's coming from a concert where he has been in his tux, in his formal performance clothing. Beside the man with the violin is a man who's reading a magazine, wearing a baseball cap. His clothes are so informal. Furedi introduces the idea of contrast. Here are people from all walks of life.

Furedi had choices about where to put people, what color clothes to put on them. The colors are fabulous. Instead of just a pink dress, the pink is stripes of yellow, and blue, and pink. It's not what we call "descriptive color." It's not exactly the way color would function under normal light in real life. But it marked her as a modernist. As a woman who was not painting something exactly as it looked.

"Subway" was selected for inclusion in this big show of work by artists employed by the Public Works of Art project. When President Franklin Roosevelt and his wonderful wife Eleanor came to see the show, they selected Lily Furedi's Subway to be moved over to the White House. And so it was on view there for many years.

The Public Works of Art project and the other federal art programs in the 1930s really represent a watershed moment in American art. No longer is it the stuff for culturally sophisticated elite people, collectors. All of a sudden, art was really for everyone.

Related Books

1934: A New Deal for Artists

During the Great Depression, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised a “new deal for the American people,” initiating government programs to foster economic recovery. Roosevelt’s pledge to help “the forgotten man” also embraced America’s artists. The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) enlisted artists to capture “the American Scene” in works of art that would embellish public buildings across the country. Although it lasted less than one year, from December 1933 to June 1934, the PWAP provided employment for thousands of artists, giving them an important role in the country’s recovery. Their legacy, captured in more than fifteen thousand artworks, helped “the American Scene” become America seen.