David Gilmour Blythe
Raised in a log cabin on the banks of the Ohio River, David Gilmour Blythe was almost entirely self-taught; aside from an apprenticeship with a Pittsburgh woodcarver, he is not known to have had any formal artistic training. Inspired by the gritty working-class subjects of 17th-century Dutch genre painting, Blythe satirized the political and social corruption that characterized American urban life. He also traveled Ohio and Pennsylvania as an itinerant portrait painter.
Is our justice system prejudiced?
Here, a policeman leads a group of suspects into a courtroom, where they are directed to join a man seated on a bench. The “Blood Tubs” (mentioned on the poster attached to the judge’s bench) were members of a Baltimore street gang that supported the American Party, which promoted anti-foreign and anti-Catholic prejudice and sought to restrict immigration. Blythe was a sympathizer, and his caricatures of the working poor may reflect the party’s anti-immigration views.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
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