Thomas Pollock Anshutz
Born in Kentucky, Thomas Pollock Anshutz moved with his family in 1863 to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he spent his teenage years growing up amid the urban factories that dominated the banks of the Ohio River. He went on to become one of the most important art teachers in the United States, teaching for nearly three decades at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he influenced the next generation of American realist painters.
How will your future be affected by mechanization?
Anshutz portrayed a group of workers at a nail factory in Wheeling, West Virginia. The workers are displayed across a shallow foreground, while the colossal foundry stretches as far as the eye can see behind them. Anshutz began the preparatory drawings for this picture during one of his yearly visits to see family in Wheeling. Increasing mechanization posed a threat to skilled American workers such as those depicted by Anshutz.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd