(Man Reading Newspaper)

Katherine Schmidt, (Man Reading Newspaper), 1935, pen and ink and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1976.75
Copied Katherine Schmidt, (Man Reading Newspaper), 1935, pen and ink and pencil on paper, sheet: 10 7⁄8 x 8 in. (27.6 x 20.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1976.75

Artwork Details

Title
(Man Reading Newspaper)
Artist
Date
1935
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 10 7⁄8 x 8 in. (27.6 x 20.3 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums Description
pen and ink and pencil on paper
Classifications
Subjects
  • Recreation — leisure — reading
  • Object — written matter — newspaper
  • Figure male — full length
Object Number
1976.75
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1976.75

Artwork Description

For Katherine Schmidt, as she noted in a 1969 interview, "New York means to me freedom and escape. . . . You can be very private here; you can be very sociable here. There's a choice." Schmidt moved to the city with her family as a child and, seizing this freedom, attended her first classes at the Art Students League at age thirteen, despite her parents' disapproval. At the League, she met Peggy Bacon, Isabel Bishop, and Victoria Hutson Huntley, all represented elsewhere in this exhibition. This sketch demonstrates Schmidt's mastery of realistic figure drawing, which she employed in larger paintings to bring awareness to the unjust social conditions in New York and the nation during the Great Depression.