The People Work--Morning
Maker
Benton Murdoch Spruance
(American, 1904 - 1967)
Collections
ClassificationsPRINTS
Date1937
Mediumlithograph
Dimensions13 3/4 x 19 in. (34.9 x 48.3 cm.)
sheet: 16 x 21 3/4 in. (40.6 x 55.2 cm.)
SignedSigned in lower right of recto in graphite: Spruance - 37-
InscribedSigned in lower right of recto in graphite: Spruance - 37-
Inscribed in lower left of recto in graphite: 22/40
Inscribed in lower center of recto in graphite: The People Work - Morning
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Hannah S. Kully
Label TextThe dramatic increase in urban population during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to the construction of large, complex, and controversial inner-city transportation systems. Benton Spruance's Philadelphia built a combination of elevated trains and subways designed to ease the commute to and from work, home, and entertainment.Spruance used the train as a means to depict the rich panoply of Philadelphia's population: men and women; young and old; the working and professional classes. In the first two lithographs, Morning and Evening, the people-even those Spruance portrayed with grotesque, masklike features-move with orderly precision. In Night, however, the station becomes home to the idle and dispossessed. In the interaction of a man lounging on the steps with one of the women in the foreground, Spruance indicated that perhaps less wholesome "work" is being performed.
Status
Not on viewObject number2011.3.24
