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Lithograph on wove paper, full margins. Artist’s proof, apart from an uncompleted edition of 50. Rare. Signed, titled and inscribed “Artist’s proof” in pencil.
15 ¾ x 22 inches | 40 x 55.9 cm
This lithograph was based on Millard Sheets painting “Tenement Flats” (1933–34), created for the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project and now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It depicts life in the Bunker Hills tenements of Los Angeles, showing a lively domestic scene with women gossiping on porches, laundry hanging, and children playing—a vivid slice of Depression-era urban life. It is possible that the lithograph predates the painting, as another impression was inscribed 1932.
According to the Annex Galleries, it is probable that the edition was not completed because of the expense of paper and the poverty throughout the country, where most people could not afford food, much less buy art.
