Interior, Greek Orthodox Church
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Jerome Myers
American, 1867–1940
Jerome Myers was an urban realist painter and a contemporary of the Eight, and, like them, embraced the gritty subject matter of the city streets and New York's Lower East Side. From a poor family himself, the artist empathized with the plight of slum dwellers, and chose as his subjects these people and their lives.
This watercolor is typical of Myers' work, depicting figures awaiting the beginning of services in the elaborate interior of a church. The artist conveys the social inequities that existed side by side with the piety of the communities in religious institutions during the early twentieth century. The simply dressed worshippers are dwarfed by the assemblage of sculpture and other decorative elements of church architecture, isolated from the altar by a screen of plants. The artist has eloquently contrasted the oppulance of the environment, with the poverty of the people of the Lower East Side ghettos, mostly immigrants, displaced from their rural roots, who clung to their familiar faith in an alien land.
American, 1867–1940
Interior, Greek Orthodox Church
Object Type:
Painting
Creation Place:
North America, American, New York
Dimensions:
10 1/8 in. x 13 13/16 in. (25.72 cm x 35.08 cm)
Medium and Support:
Watercolor, graphite, and ink on paper
Accession Number:
2000.0013.0002
Credit Line:
Gift of Babette L. and Charles H. Wampold
Jerome Myers was an urban realist painter and a contemporary of the Eight, and, like them, embraced the gritty subject matter of the city streets and New York's Lower East Side. From a poor family himself, the artist empathized with the plight of slum dwellers, and chose as his subjects these people and their lives.
This watercolor is typical of Myers' work, depicting figures awaiting the beginning of services in the elaborate interior of a church. The artist conveys the social inequities that existed side by side with the piety of the communities in religious institutions during the early twentieth century. The simply dressed worshippers are dwarfed by the assemblage of sculpture and other decorative elements of church architecture, isolated from the altar by a screen of plants. The artist has eloquently contrasted the oppulance of the environment, with the poverty of the people of the Lower East Side ghettos, mostly immigrants, displaced from their rural roots, who clung to their familiar faith in an alien land.
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