Raphael Soyer and the Search for Modern Jewish Art

Artist Raphael Soyer (1899–1987), whose Russian Jewish family settled in Manhattan in 1912, was devoted to painting people in their everyday urban lives. He came to be known especially for his representations of city workers and the down-and-out, and for his portraits of himself and his friends. Although Soyer never identified himself as a “Jewish artist,” Samantha Baskind, in the first full-length critical study of the artist, argues that his work was greatly influenced by his ethnicity an...