Backstage
1935
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph in black
Dimensions
image: 38.74 × 29.21 cm (15 1/4 × 11 1/2 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.7983
Art Historical Context
Raphael Soyer's *Backstage* (1935) is a poignant black lithograph capturing the intimate world behind the theater curtain. Measuring 38.74 × 29.21 cm, this print from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection exemplifies Soyer's mastery of Social Realism, a movement that flourished during the Great Depression. Soyer, a Russian-born artist who immigrated to New York as a child, often depicted the everyday struggles and quiet dignity of urban working-class life, and this work likely peers into the hidden lives of performers preparing offstage. Created through lithography—a planographic p...