Details

About the painting

Bundled in thick coats and hats, three streetcar riders sit closely together, each gazing in a different direction. A woman in fur trim holds a brown bundle in her lap next to a man whose spectacles reflect the blue sky. In the foreground, another man tilts his head sadly, a shovel between his hands. Rendered with dignity, in somber hues and heavy outlines, these figures reflect an interest in the everyday lives of working-class people, especially on the South Side of Chicago, where the artist lived and taught art.

Born into a Jewish family who fled the pogroms in Poland, Topchevsky studied with Enella Benedict at Hull-House, where he later taught, and at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1932, he became an instructor at the Abraham Lincoln Centre, a social settlement serving the needs of Bronzeville residents. Topchevsky was known as an outspoken radical and labor activist. His experience of ethnic violence in his home country, and the racial violence he witnessed in Chicago, inspired his lifelong commitment to social justice and to art as a means of liberation.