Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Mervin Jules
"Tailor" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Modern Fashion

1930s

$15,000
£11,406.84
€13,157.24
CA$21,012.26
A$23,516.87
CHF 12,279.47
MX$286,907.13
NOK 155,871.81
SEK 147,912.75
DKK 98,252.01
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

"Tailor" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Modern Fashion Mervin Jules (1912 – 1994) "The Tailor" 9 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches Oil on masonite, c. 1930s Signed lower right Provenance: Mervin Jules Estate. Bio A painter, illustrator, print maker, and educator, Mervin Jules is known for painting and illustration that focuses on social commentary and that often employs satire. He "typically uses dramatic and evocative lighting where sinewy figures emerge from darkened backgrounds, much like the paintings of Honore Daumier." (ArtSource) He was very active as a print maker, having been a designer of silk prints and china painter as a young man growing up in Baltimore. During the Depression of the 1930s, he was a member of the Silk Screen Unit of the Fine Arts Project of the WPA. Jules studied art at Baltimore City College, and on scholarship at the Maryland Institute of Fine and Applied Arts where he graduated in 1934. In 1937, he enrolled at the Art Students League with Thomas Hart Benton. He had his first one-man exhibition in November, 1937 in New York City, and in this show had small tempera panels, and a series of Pennsylvania coal-country theme gouache paintings. Teaching included Fieldston School, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from 1943 to 1946; the Baltimore Educatonal Alliance; and Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1946 to 1969. Upon leaving Smith, he became Chair of the Art Department of the City College of New York, and also maintained a studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Exhibition Venues: "Baltimore Museum of Art, 1936-46; Whitney Museum of American Art, 1938, 1940-49; Art Institute of Chicago, 1938-41; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual, 1939, 1943, 1948-50; Museum of Modern Art, 1941 (prize); "World's Fair, New York", 1939; Golden Gate Exposition, 1939; Carnegie Institute, 1941, 1944-45; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1946; Library of Congress, 1940, 1945-46; Library of Congress, 1945; Brooklyn Museum; Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial, 1945; ACA Gallery, New York City, 1940s; San Francisco World's Fair; American American Artists for Victory (sent to England); Boston Printmakers, 1967 (19th annual Exhibition, honorable mention ). Awards: Asian-African Study Program grant to Japan, 1967; Alfred Vance Churchill Foundation grant, 1967.
  • Creator:
    Mervin Jules (1912 - 1994, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1930s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1156212445992

More From This Seller

View All
"Money Lender" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modern Mid 20th Century
By Mervin Jules
Located in New York, NY
"Money Lender" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Mervin M Jules (1912-1994 "The Money Lender" 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower left F...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism George Pearse Ennis (American, 1884-1936) "Forging a Gun Tube #1...
Category

1910s American Modern Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker
By Otis Oldfield
Located in New York, NY
"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker. Signed “Otis Oldfield” lower left. 14 x 12 inches. Exhibited: Galerie des Beaux Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1925 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Born in Sacramento, CA on July 3, 1890, Otis Oldfield left high school at age 16 to work in a local print shop. In 1909 he arrived in San Francisco and enrolled at the Best Art School. After working for two years as a bellhop at the Argonaut Hotel and as a hat check boy at the Cliff House, he had saved enough money for further studies in Paris. In 1911 he sailed for France and enrolled at Académie Julian. Caught up in the activities of wartime Paris, he was an apprentice for a book...
Category

1920s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Studio Interior Mid 20th Century American Scene Modern WPA Still Life Realism
By Joseph Solman
Located in New York, NY
Studio Interior Scene Mid 20th Century American Modern WPA Still Life Realism The painting measures 10 x 12 inches. Framed, the work is 13 1/4 x 15 1/...
Category

1930s American Realist Interior Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Industrial Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modern WPA
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
Industrial Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modern WPA Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Hammering Nails 39 x 50 ½ inches Gouache on paper c. 19...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century
By Carlos Lopez
Located in New York, NY
Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century Carlos Lopez (1910-1953) "Bounty" WPA Mural Study for Michigan Post Office 19 ½ x 22 ½ inches Oil on B...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

You May Also Like

Antique Shop, Classic American Scene by Morton Roberts
By Morton Roberts
Located in New York, NY
Morton Roberts (American, 1927-1964) Antiques, c. 1950 Oil on canvas 12 1/4 x 15 in. Framed: 15 x 17 3/4 x 2 in. Signed lower left: Morton Roberts He was a promising artist, who die...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Doctor's Office. Mid-Century American Scene Oil Painting Youngstown, OH.
Located in Marco Island, FL
An anxious moment waiting to see the doctor is depicted by Clyde Singer in this quiet and still painting. Entitled Doctor's Office (1949), Singer paints a moment of anticipation and...
Category

1940s American Realist Interior Paintings

Materials

Panel, Oil

WPA "New Americana" Exceptional Antique 1941 WPA Exhibited Carnegie Painting
Located in Exton, PA
Monumental, important WPA painting by Percy Albee. The painting is oil canvas measuring 36" x 48". Titled verso "New Americans", this WPA painting was exhibited at the Carnegie Insti...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Paris City Scene, Portrait Oil Painting WPA Era 1940s
By Maurice Kish
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: French Paris Scene Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States The imagery of Maurice Kish (1895-1987), whether factories or carousels, reliably subver...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Lunch Break” Fletcher Martin, Men Working, Bricklayers, WPA, American Scene
By Fletcher Martin
Located in New York, NY
Fletcher Martin Lunch Break, circa 1940 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 31 1/2 x 37 3/8 inches When Fletcher Martin died in 1979, the New York Times entitled his obituary “Artist o...
Category

1940s American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Factory Worker
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Factory Worker, c. 1936, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 18 ¼ x 36 inches; exhibited in City ...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil