Four years after the stock market crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated the New Deal, a program of domestic reform meant to revive the economy and alleviate the problem of mass unemployment. Toward these ends, he established various new federal agencies, putting many more people to work to do the increased business of government. Thousands of artists were employed, most through the largest program, the Works Progress Administration. Although the government did not dictate the type of art that was to be produced, it did encourage the use of a representational style and American themes. As a result, most of the art created in the decade prior to World War II was humanistic in orientation.

Artists, writers, and philosophers of the period became obsessed with the social relevance of art. Although a small group of American artists did attack the societal ills of the nation (housing shortages, unemployment) and of the world in general (the rise of fascism and militarism), most adopted a more pragmatic and even positive attitude. American scene painters captured busy city dwellers on streets, in buses, at work, and at play. Occasionally artists infused an element of humor into the pathos of everyday existence, even in scenes that allude to the political disasters of the day. Regionalists were particularly fond of idealizing the past and aggrandizing the present accomplishments of the country. In fact, the myth of America as a country where everyone lives a pastoral, carefree existence emerged with new vigor in the art of the 1930s.

The diversity of the people also emerged as a strong current of social realism. Artists who were accustomed to working in their studios now looked beyond their immediate circles for models. Individuals of various races, professions, or creeds inspired some of the most moving portraits of the century and demonstrated the soul of the people.

One of the leading progressives in post-World War I Los Angeles, Rich settled in southern California in 1914 after a career in Boston and New York. Although he was skilled in the style of impressionism popularized by his teacher, Edmund Tarbell, within a few years his work had evolved beyond this training. The figure in Mme Yup See is fully realized within a traditional approach to modeling and draftsmanship, yet Rich’s postimpressionist handling dominates the picture. The background flickers with long horizontal streaks of pink, ultramarine blue, and yellow, sparkling hues that echo the deeper colors of Mme See’s attire. The See family has a unique history in the Los Angeles area. Fong See, the patriarch, came to this country as a poor immigrant but became one of the richest and most prominent Chinese in the United States. The antique stores owned by his family numbered among their clients, the architects Charles and Henry Greene, the art dealer Grace Nicholson, and eventually the young motion picture companies, which bought Asian wares as props. Yup See’s place within the family has not been determined; however, it seems that Rich intended his painting as a tribute to the Chinese-American community. He placed this beautiful woman among objects of the kind the Sees would have sold. Mme See wears a Qing Dynasty silk robe with an embroidered design based on the nine-dragon motif that was the prerogative of the Chinese royal family and court. The simple frame, with its decoration limited to the corners, was designed and carved by the artist.

• About the Era.
• Blake, Janet, and Deborah Epstein Solon. Art Colony: the Laguna Beach Art Association, 1918-1935. Laguna Beach: Laguna Art Museum, 2018.
• Vure, Sarah. Circles of Influence: Impressionism to Modernism in Southern California Art, 1910-1930. Newport Beach, CA. 2000.

• Barron, Stephanie, S. Bernstein and I. S. Fort, with essays by Stephanie Barron, Sherri Bernstein, M. Dear, Howard N. Fox and Richard Rodriguez.  Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Berkeley:  University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000.

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