The Way They Live

Thomas Anshutz American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 762

Born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia, Anshutz moved to Brooklyn in 1871. In this painting, the mountain setting may be based on a scene observed on the artist’s travels around West Virginia. Produced after the end of Reconstruction, Anshutz’s depiction of a woman and two children tending a patch of tobacco—a cash crop that could provide some degree of financial independence—suggests a nuanced commentary on their situation. The painting’s title underscores the distance between the presumed White middle-class viewer and the laboring Black subject.

The Way They Live, Thomas Anshutz (American, Newport, Kentucky 1851–1912 Fort Washington, Pennsylvania), Oil on canvas, American

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