The Jewish New Year.

GROPPER, WILLIAM.

New York, mid-20th century

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. Stamps on rear read: ‘William Gropper, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.’

American William Gropper (1897-1977) was the child of Jewish immigrants from Romania and the Ukraine. A social realist painter and political cartoonist, Gropper expressed his views through his art. In 1924 Gropper was employed by the Freiheit, a left-wing Yiddish daily newspaper. Progressively studying art Gropper’s later work was influenced by Cubism as seen in the sharp angles, prismatic effects of color and disregard for realism in the present piece. After a 1948 visit to the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto, while attending the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wrociaw, Poland, Gropper was inspired to paint themes of Jewish subjects as a tribute to those lost during the war.