Raphael Soyer

The paintings of Raphael Soyer depict urban subjects with compassion and naturalistic realism. As a realist artist, Soyer's work is rooted in the social realist movement of the 1930s, whose art was concerned with promoting social equality. He conveys a frank portrayal of humanity through his beautiful and emotionally charged works. Through the settings, expressions, and actions in his works, Soyer conveyed a sense of the tone of his time. Explore and stay up to date with the talented Raphael Soyer's rich tapestry of paintings on Bidsquare.

In his earliest works, Soyer deliberately used primitive techniques. Through the 1920s, he typically used caricature as a means of depicting figures and presenting them in frontal format. A tonal instead of coloristic style emerged later in his career, characterized by gestural brushwork reminiscent of Edgar Degas' paintings. His early works such as Sixth Avenue demonstrate his interest in capturing his urban environment. Raphael Soyer painted a sensitive portrait of working-class and homeless people after World War II, inspired by his own experience as an immigrant. The artist's insightful paintings portray a diverse group of city dwellers, including office workers, Bowery bums, shoppers, dancers, seamstresses, and fellow artists. Raphael Soyer sympathized with those suffering through the Depression, given the fact they were unable to support themselves, he could relate to their feelings of insecurity. Through his paintings, Soyer captured these emotions to the best of his ability, embracing them all with empathy.

As was common among artists during the Depression, Soyer portrayed scenes that he encountered in his daily life near Union Square. Several of Soyer's Antique paintings are represented as embodiments of the Depression, such as Portrait of Walter Broe, with its emaciated, weary face. The City Park, one of his works created at the height of the Depression depicts the down-and-out with dark-hued, sympathetic renderings. Even so, Soyer's work does not display any obvious political bias despite being created at such a time of emotional intensity.

Throughout his career, Soyer has always believed in the importance of art in capturing and expressing the lives and times of people. Rather than glorifying life, he felt art should represent it honestly. As depicted in another of his paintings, The Seamstress reflects the unfulfilled expectations felt by many Americans during the Great Depression. Farewell to Lincoln Square, a figurative painting that Soyer painted towards the end of the 1950s, was among the works he began painting outdoors again. A judicious use of color and light as well as quick and sequential strokes contributed to the sincere nature of his paintings. He espoused humanistic realism to communicate with his viewers, a weapon he used to combat abstract art, a style that dominated the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to the work of Isabelle Bishop and Reginald Marsh, Soyer contributed to the perpetuation and expansion of painting in the figurative tradition. After the Second World War, figurative painting experienced an international revival due to their urban subjects and sympathetic portrayals. In his entire career, Soyer's work was critically acclaimed and sold well. Regular exhibitions of his work were held in galleries and museums, including a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1967.

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