Lunch Hour
Joseph Hirsch (1910-1981), Lunch Hour, 1942, lithograph, signed in pencil. Published by Associated American Artists, in good condition (some time staining) with full margins, on a cream wove paper, 9 x 11 3/4, the sheet 11 x 13 7/8 inches.
A very good impression, still in its original Associated American Artists mat (which, surprisingly, does not appear to be acid-free).
Hirsch was a traditionalist, a social realist painter and printmaker, who won numerous prizes and awards over the course of a long career. His work did not tend to break new ground, but if he were producing these paintings and prints today one wonders whether this sort of work would be revered as leading edge post-modernism. The AAA label, reproduced below, shows the wide ranging acclaim he had achieved by age 32.
The Associated American Artists Label for Hirsch’s Lunch Hour