Justice
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.
\ Artist
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.
\ About
Oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd