Black oil pastels with watercolor and opaque white on thin machine-made paper
USA, 1907
Jerome Myers (1867-1940) – US-American painter and illustrator of the early 20th century
Signed and dated lower left ‘Jerome Myers 1907’
Humorous parody scene with artists who are watched by a passing couple of New York's ‘upper class’
Overall dimensions, framed: 31.5 x 38 cm
Sheet size: 24 x 30 cm
Very good condition
Provenance: German private collection
Jerome Myers is known for its versatile sympathetic portrayal of New York City life, drawings of this kind fetch up to 14,000 euros at international auctions

This humorous chalk drawing in combination with watercolor and opaque white was created by the American artist Jerome Myers in 1907. It illustrates a scene with a couple of artists who are disguised as a horse and jockey, performing a parody scene. Just at that moment it happens that an elegant couple of New York's ‘upper class’ with their horse is passing the scene, obviously excited as if they felt personally addressed by this performance. Myers portrayed the New York City life, especially the people of lower class society, but of high society as well, like no other. He himself once wrote about his inspiration in the magazine The Survey: ‘All my life I had lived, worked and played in the poorest streets of American cities. I knew them and their population and was one of them. Others saw ugliness and degradation there, I saw poetry and beauty’. [Jerome Myers, The Life Song of the People, 1923]



The drawing is signed and dated lower left ‘Jerome Myers 1907’ and is in very good condition. It is matted and verso mounted on the edges. The sheet is overall in very good condition and measures 24 x 30 cm. The frame shows minor wear. The framed work measures 31.5 x 38 cm.



Jerome Myers (1867-1940)

Jerome Myers was born 1867 in Petersburg, Virginia. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Trenton and Baltimore, Myers finally spent the adult age most of the time in New York City, where he was briefly employed as an actor and stage designer. A little later he began to study art at the Cooper Union and the Art Students League under George de Forest Brush. In 1895 Myers received a job at the New York Tribune, where he worked for the art department, followed by a short stay in Paris. For his works he found inspiration by the life of the poor people on the street, the big city life itself in all its facets, which is reflected in numerous of his paintings and drawings. Myers was a member of the so-called ‘Ashcan School', an artistic movement that was known for its sympathetic portrayals of scenes depicting everyday life in New York City. Myer was also co-founder of the famous Armory Show in 1913 that made art of European modernism popular in America.

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