William Gropper

William Gropper WPA Artist Watercolor in Grisaille, circa 1932- “Uprooted”

Circa 1930's

Politically charged oil on canvas by Depression Era New York artist William Gropper. Painting measures: 20" H x 16" W. Frame measures: 24" H x 20" W. Signed lower right and in excell...

Peggy Bacon original etching and drypoint created 1929. Pencil signed lower right. Titled “Congenial Scene.” Image measures 9"h x 11 7/8"w. In excellent condition. Matted and unframe...

This artwork titled "Liberated Village" c. 1940, is an original lithograph on paper by noted American artist William Gropper, 1897-1977. It is hans signed and titled in pencil by the artist. The artwork (image) size is 12 x 16.5 inches, framed size is 20.25 x 24.25 inches. Custom framed in a black metal frame, with off white matting. It is in excellent condition. An example of this particular artwork is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. About the artist: William Gropper was born in New York City's Lower East Side in 1897. He was the first of six children to parents who earned small wages working in sweatshops. At the age of fourteen, Gropper left school to help support his family. While carrying bolts of cloth for his deliveries, Gropper began to draw on scraps of paper, sidewalks, and walls. A passerby saw some of these drawings and invited Gropper to attend a life-drawing class at the Ferrer School. He studied there for three years from 1912 to 1915, attending classes taught by Robert Henri and George Bellows. From 1915 to 1918 Gropper attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Art part-time on scholarship. Gropper also won a scholarship to the National Academy of Design, but remained as a student for only a short time; the rigid and systematic institution conflicted with Gropper's belief in the personal nature of art. At the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, Gropper earned several prizes. One of these prizes was for his cartoons, which led him to be hired by the New York Tribune in 1917 to sketch for their features. A few years later through freelance work, his cartoons and drawings appeared in other newspapers and magazines, such as The Liberator, The New Masses...

"Unemployed" WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern William Gropper (1898 - 1977) Unemployed 20 x 16 inches Oil on canvas, 1937 Signed lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist Bio Throughout his life, William Gropper used his artistic talents to protest social injustice. Born in New York City, he grew up there in poverty and left high school to work as a dishwasher and delivery boy. He eventually began a career in art and was able to study with Robert Henri and George Bellows from 1912 to 1915. He adopted their realistic painting style, and his own work expressed sympathy for common laborers and outrage at society's ills. In 1919 Gropper established a reputation as a political cartoonist working for the New York Tribune. His blunt, forceful style attracted the attention of other publications, and he provided illustrations and cartoons for a variety of magazines, from the left-wing New Masses to mainstream Vanity Fair. Like many social realist artists of the 1930s, Gropper supported liberal political causes, depicting subjects such as the plight of migrant laborers and striking factory workers. In his first gallery exhibition in 1936 at ACA Galleries, Gropper's work was so well received by critics, collectors, and artists that the following year he had two one-man exhibitions at ACA Galleries. In 1937, Gropper traveled west on a Guggenheim Fellowship and visited the Dust Bowl and the Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams, sketching studies for a series of paintings and a mural he painted for the Department of the Interior. That same year he had paintings purchased by both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Gropper exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Whitney Museum of American Art (1924-55), Art Institute of Chicago (1935-49), Carnegie International (1937-50), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1939-48), and National Academy of Design (1945-48). He was a founder of the Artists Equity Association and member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. From 1940 to 1945 William Gropper was preoccupied with anti-Nazi cartoons...