Snapshots of the Past

Builders / Sternberg. – Historic Reproduction

Builders / Sternberg., [1935 or 1936] — antique lithograph
Builders / Sternberg., [1935 or 1936]. Antique lithograph from the Work & Industry collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare antique lithograph captures Builders / Sternberg. in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Builders / Sternberg.

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Harry Sternberg's "Builders" is a circular lithograph, roughly 33 centimeters across, that turns the act of raising a steel frame into a tight, rounded composition. The print was made under the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration in New York City, one of the New Deal programs that put artists to work during the Depression and gave them a public audience for affordable prints. Its subjects, steelworkers and girders, reflect the city's skyline-building boom of the 1930s, when iron workers and steeplejacks balanced high above the streets. Sternberg, a Realist printmaker, drew the figures with the weight and strain of labor in mind, a theme that ran through much of the period's work.

Created / published[1935 or 1936]
Medium1 print : lithograph ; 33 cm. diameter (image), 49.8 x 40 cm. (sheet)
GenreLithographs 1930-1940.
NotesSigned on stone. Signed (Harry Sternberg) and titled in pencil below print. Stamped left margin: Federal Art Project WPA NYC. Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Foundation Collection (Library of Congress). Exhibited in: Life of the people: Realist prints and drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948, Library of Congress, 1999. Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2002:170.1441
SubjectsBuilding construction--1930-1940. Girders--1930-1940. Steeplejacks--1930-1940.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,826 × 4,643 px · prints to 13 × 15 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-220275

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