WILLIAM GROPPER American, 1897–1977 The Tailor Lithograph on paper. Signed and numbered lower left hand corner. Sheet is mounted. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Sheet: 14 x 10.75 inches (excluding frame) $130-250
ARTIST PROFILE: William Gropper (1897–1977) was a seminal American Social Realist painter, muralist, and prolific political cartoonist who dedicated his career to "defending the underdog." Born to impoverished Jewish immigrants on New York’s Lower East Side, Gropper’s worldview was forged by the hardships of the garment district and the tragic loss of an aunt in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. He received formal training under Ashcan School masters Robert Henri and George Bellows at the radical Ferrer School, developing a satirical, "punch-packing" style often compared to that of Honoré Daumier. A committed labor activist, he contributed thousands of incisive illustrations to radical publications like The New Masses and The Liberator, while also completing prestigious WPA murals and documenting the struggles of the Dust Bowl on a Guggenheim Fellowship. Despite being blacklisted during the McCarthy era—an experience he famously satirized in his Capriccios lithograph series—Gropper remained a fierce advocate for social justice until his death. Today, his work is held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
