William Gropper was born in New York and was a student of Robert Henri and George Bellows at the Ferrer School from 1912 to 1915. He was a painter and cartoonist who used a powerful caricature style to focus on social concerns. He was actively engaged in support of the organized labor movement throughout his career.

The cartoon shows a large balding man (labeled "Wall Street") with a cigar clenched in his teeth, holding the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court in his lap. The Supreme Court was dominated by conservative judges at the time who blocked much of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation before 1937. Gropper had concluded that that the Court was controlled by the business interests of Wall Street.

His bold cartoons of the 1920s appeared in publications like the New Masses and Rebel Worker. His activities as a labor organizer and three visits to the Soviet Union further contributed to his growing reputation as a radical. During the 1930s, working as a part of the Federal Arts Project, he produced some of the most gripping social protest works of the Great Depression. Subjects included industrial strikes and incidents of strike breaking, especially in the coal mining and steel-production centers. He did much illustration-cartoon work for the New York Tribune newspaper; Vanity Fair magazine, and the politically 'left-wing' publication, "New Masses." By the later 1930s, however, Gropper was also known for his oil paintings and murals.

Gropper was blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953. He retaliated by producing a vitriolic series of fifty lithographs, Caprichos, based on the hearings. Gropper believed his art could inspire people to be more compassionate and to fight for change. He also agreed with his teachers Henri and Bellows that art should be truthful to the human condition. Gropper continued to produce socially significant art until his death in 1977.

Medium : 1 drawing : ink, opaque white and blue pencil

Created/Published : 193?

Creator : William Gropper, artist, 1897-1977

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

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Product #: ppmsca07169