Julius Bloch American/German, 1888-1966
Untitled (Young Man), c. 1945
ink & charcoal
image/sheet 19 1/4 x 12 1/2"
signed recto
Julius Bloch's work is celebrated for his sympathetic, empathetic portraits of African Americans. His work was praised and collected by Eleanor Roosevelt, who acquired Bloch's lithograph, Negro, in 1935. Aside...
Julius Bloch's work is celebrated for his sympathetic, empathetic portraits of African Americans. His
work was praised and collected by Eleanor Roosevelt, who acquired Bloch's lithograph, Negro, in 1935. Aside from portrait commissions, Bloch gave himself the job of painting the people American society largely ignored—African Americans. in the 1940s, his work was fêted by Philadelphia's Pyramid Club, and Bloch befriended artists Humbert Howard and Sam Brown. Our Young Man is an exceptionally tender image, the sitter relaxed and looking straight at us, tie loosened. The trust established between artist and sitter is admirable, and the young man's pose is very similar to Bloch's
lithograph, Prisoner, 1936, for which he won acclaim.
