Raphael Soyer painted members of his family often and throughout his career. Painting Moses, his identical twin, was in many ways creating a self-portrait, for the two not only shared a common profession, they even worked in similar styles. During the decade this portrait was painted, Raphael also created Double Portrait, 1963 (Mrs. George H. Boynton, Tuxedo Park, N.Y.), which depicts the two sitting in a studio with easels cluttering the background. The quiet, tired poignance of his brother is the sole theme of the painting. Moses’s mood might have been the result of his advanced age, but it might just as readily be explained by the preferences of both brother-painters for models who expressed a silent and somewhat resigned sadness. In Raphael’s case this tendency first appeared in the pathos of his scenes of the depression. Raphael often focused on his model’s face as an expression of this mood, and here placed his brother’s relatively small head in the center of a large composition. A cool palette of somber mauves, blue greens, and grays intensifies the mood. The emptiness of the room, with only a drawing tacked to a door in the background, emphasizes Moses’s solitary bearing. Moses is similarly depicted in Raphael’s most famous late work, Homage to Thomas Eakins, 1963-65 (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), a large, crowded group portrait in which all the artists included appear to be en-tranced and in their own worlds despite the crowded nature of the composition. Raphael always demonstrated a strong sense of design, shown here by his strategic placement of the figure. The fluid application of pigment in almost abstract terms is characteristic of his late, more painterly handling.

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.