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John George Brown (American, 1831 - 1913)
A Tough Story, 1886 |
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In A Tough Story, John George Brown depicts his favorite subject, the city shoeshine boy, clearly recognizable by his blacking box and brushes. He could depict these children as largely doing all right because most people believed personal failings, not economic forces, caused poverty. His partially, but not wholly, idealized vision reassured a middle class fearful that street children symbolized a decaying society. Why do you think wealthy people would buy a painting of street children from Brown, and where would you guess they would hang such a painting?
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George Benjamin Luks (American, 1866 - 1933)
In the Steerage, 1900 |
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The immigrant urban poor and their plight intrigued Luks and other artist friends in what was called the Ash Can school, so named because they painted back-alley life of New York City at the turn of the 20th century. Here he uses a strong diagonal to reinforce the crush of people in the poorest part of the boat, the steerage, where there seems to be standing room only. The immigrants have all their worldly belongings on the floor behind them.
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Charles Felix Blauvelt
A German Immigrant Inquiring His Way
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Franz Kline
Orange Outline
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Jasper Francis Cropsey
Eagle Cliff, Franconia Notch, New Hampshire
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Christian Friedrich Mayr
Kitchen Ball at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia
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John Singleton Copley
Mrs. James Russell (Katherine Graves) (1717-1778)
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Focus Works of Art
A German Immigrant Inquiring His Way
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Charles Felix Blauvelt
(American, 1824 - 1900)
A German Immigrant Inquiring His Way,
1855 |
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IMAGES OF IMMIGRATION IN THE LATE 19th CENTURY
Looking closely at the painting, we see a German peasant wearing an old military hat and holding a clay pipe. A little peasant-dressed girl cowers beneath him. The immigrant's gestures tell us he is asking a black laborer for directions. The African American and the German immigrant are equal outcasts at the time. Perhaps Blauvelt asks sympathy for both.
Charles F. Blauvelt was an important genre and portrait painter in the mid-to-late 19th century. Judging from the frequency and the empathy with which he painted immigrant subjects, especially in the 1850s, one might suppose he was an immigrant himself. But he was born and grew up in New York City. On the other hand, New York was the main portal through which approximately 4,000,000 immigrants entered the United States in the two decades between 1840 and 1860. Immigrants and their immediate descendants accounted for a large portion of America's phenomenal population increase during that same period, from 17,000,000 to 31,000,000. The greatest growth and the greatest immigrant settlement took place in the larger cities. New York's population, for example, quadrupled, jumping from just over 300,000 persons to 1,250,000 at the onset of the Civil War.
For Blauvelt, the stream of newcomers was a picturesque parade of various human types and cultures. It was also a story of patience, fortitude and courage as many of the arrivals from foreign lands, impoverished and incapable of speaking English, endeavored to get about in their adopted country. The theme of an immigrant asking for directions was one Blauvelt painted many times. Could there be a larger implied meaning for his theme of immigrants asking directions? Can the immigrant be asking not just for a destination, but for where he might fit in as well?
Click here to view a related video produced in association with the North Carolina School of Science and Math's Learn More - Teach More Project. (RealPlayer is required to view this video file.)
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Below are suggestions for using the Focus Work of Art with students in the classroom. The activity and discussion ideas are listed in order of difficulty. The activity instructions and italicized discussion questions may be presented directly to students. The icons below each suggestion note the related subject area(s). Click on each icon to determine which subject area it represents. Browse the thematic Lesson Plans for more ideas on how to use this work of art and theme in the classroom. |
- Finding a Place in Society
What does Blauvelt's German Immigrant Inquiring His Way say about the way immigrants and blacks were viewed in the mid-19th century? How have conditions for these groups changed since then? Compare the jobs that were available for these people in the 19th century with those that immigrants and blacks hold today.
 
- Immigrant Interview
Interview someone who has recently immigrated to America. Consider what brought him or her to America and what he or she left behind. Write a short biography of this person, including his or her expectations for a new life in this country.
  
- Regarding Childhood
Using Tough Story as a point of departure, consider the lives of immigrant children in the 19th century. Research how childhood was viewed in this time period at different levels of society. How did education and labor reform change these views? How is today's view of childhood different? Find an image from a popular source that depicts today's definition of childhood.
- The Immigrant Experience: Then and Now
Looking at George Luks's, In the Steerage, discuss the following questions: Where are these immigrants? What part of the boat is the steerage? What does their appearance and location tell you about their wealth? What might they face when they get to the United States? Compare these immigrants with those described in the story of the Mexican laborer's immigration at The Independent Lens Web site: Introduction and Chapter Two. How do these immigrants come to the United States? How does their experience differ from those in Luks's painting? How are their experiences similar?
- Immigration Today
Write a paragraph responding to the following question: If an artist were to paint a picture of immigration today, what would it look like?
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