Bargain Hunters

Kenneth Hayes Miller, Bargain Hunters, 1940, oil on canvas, 30 ⁷⁄₈ x 36 ¹⁄₈ in. (78.4 x 91.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.65, © 1940, Kenneth Hayes Miller

Artwork Details

Title: Bargain Hunters
Artist: Kenneth Hayes Miller
Date: 1940
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 30 ⁷⁄₈ x 36 ¹⁄₈ in. (78.4 x 91.8 cm.)
Copyright: © 1940, Kenneth Hayes Miller
Credit Line: Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Figure group
African American
Occupation — domestic — shopping
Architecture Interior — commercial — store
Object Number: 1986.6.65
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.6.65

Artwork Description

During the forty years Kenneth Hayes Miller taught at the Art Students League in New York City, he encouraged a generation of American painters, including Reginald Marsh, Paul Cadmus, and Sara Roby, to find inspiration in contemporary life. Yet he also counseled compositional balance and the value of classic form. For his own work, Miller looked to the shoppers, salesgirls, strollers, and streetwalkers he encountered around Fourteenth Street and Union Square. In Bargain Hunters, he captured the crush of femininity on sale day. Although the women seem frozen in space, their eyes sparkle with the excitement of bargain hunting.

Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014

Works by this artist (1 item)

Pecos Canyon

Artist

Gina Schnaufer Knee

Date1933

watercolor on paper

Exhibitions

Media - 1986.6.100 - SAAM-1986.6.100_2 - 135134

Modern American Realism: Highlights from the Sara Roby Foundation Collection

Smithsonian American Art Museum

This exhibition presents some of the most treasured paintings and sculpture from SAAM’s permanent collection, including artworks by Will Barnet, Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, George Tooker, among others.