| Moses Soyer | ||
| Birth Date: December 25, 1899 |
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| Death Date: September 3, 1974 Artist Gallery |
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| Moses Soyer, like his identical twin, Raphael, and his younger brother Issac Soyer helped sustain into the present era the warm, expressive and humanistic tradition of portraiture and studies of interiors that can be traced, in rough, from Rembrandt (Moses’s favorite artist) through Gustave Courbet, Camille Carrot and Thomas Eakins.
Brought to this country in 1912 from Russia, Soyer studied in New York City at Cooper Union, National Academy of Design, the Education Alliance and the Ferrer School, all between 1916 and 1920. His art expressed social-realist themes of the Great Depression era. Later his work turned to depicting female figures, especially ballet dancers. Soyer was influenced by the work of Robert Henri and George Bellows.
The works Project Administration provided him with work and the fellowship of other artists. Moses used the opportunity to paint realistic social statements about this time, portraying his subjects in the perseverance of hard work or in the uncertainty of unemployment. Moses and Raphael worked together on a mural for the WPA-FAP at Kingsessing Station Post Office, Philadelphia.
During the 1940s, he portrayed many dancers, often in poses reminiscent of Edgar Degas, but with the added measure of melancholy that often graced his works. Through the succeeding decades, he completed numerous portraits of people who seem to be preoccupied with a sad secret.
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