William Gropper. “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho.” Associated American Artists. Lithograph; signed at bottom right. 14 1/2 x 10 1/4 sight, on sheet 17 1/2 x 12 3/4. Sheet toned and minor mat burn. With original AAA label. Framed.

Born in New York to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, William Gropper (1897-1977) was a painter, cartoonist, lithographer and well-known radical activist.  His radicalism was nurtured in childhood both because his well-educated father could find no work except as a low wage worker in the garment industry and because he lost an aunt in the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist factory.

Gropper studied at the radical Ferrer School under Robert Henri and George Bellows, eventually finding work as a cartoonist for the New York Tribune while he labored part-time in a clothing store.  His work also appeared in such radical publications as The Masses, the Liberator, The Revolutionary Age, and the Industrial Workers of the World’s The Rebel Worker.  More mainstream publications where his art appeared included The Bookman and The Dial.

Although never a member of the Communist Party, Gropper admired the Soviet Union, which he, Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis visited in 1927.   And, while he dedicated his 1930s art to opposing European fascism, he enjoyed more politically acceptable commissions, such as murals in the Freeport, New York, post office and at the Schenley Corporation.  On his grave’s footstone his family would note he was a beloved husband and father “whose art was always on the side of man.”

Gropper’s work was exhibited all over the world:  from Detroit to Mexico City;  from London to Paris;  from Prague to Moscow and many cities in between.  He received awards both nationally, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, and internationally, such as the Young Israel Prize.  His art resides in collections both in the US — Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts — and globally, such as Moscow’s Museum of Western Art and Tel-Aviv’s Museum of Israel.