Raphael Soyer

Raphael Soyer immigrated to New York City in 1913 after his family was deported from Russia by the Tsarist regime. He attended art classes at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design as well as the Art Students League where one of his teachers recognized his talent and helped him secure his first solo exhibition. He used his experience of immigrant life in New York as the source of his subjects and also created a large body of self-portraits. Both of his brothers also were artists and he executed several mural commissions in association with them. Later in his career he became a teacher at the Art Students League. He was known as a Social Realist for focusing on images of immigrants, laborers, and the poor in American society.