Raphael Soyer
American, born Russia, 1899 - 1987The Pier, 1955 - 1960
Not on view
Lithograph on paper
Dimensions25 3/4 × 23 1/2 in. (65.4 × 59.7 cm)
Image: 23 1/2 × 17 in. (59.7 × 43.2 cm)
Gift of Mr. Jack B. Pierson, 1993.3
Born in Russia, Raphael Soyer came to the United States in 1912, and settled in New York. After immigrating, Soyer and his brothers enrolled in high school for a brief time before dropping out to work in factories and sell newspapers. While working, the brothers spent their nights studying at the National Academy of Design.
Inspired by works that Soyer saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art he decided to enroll in the Arts Students League. He persistently investigated a number of themes in his work including female nudes, portraits of friends and family, New York, and the people of New York. He found poetry in the simple and natural gesture of young girls and was adamantly against abstract art saying, “I choose to be a realist and a humanist in art.”
