Joseph Paul Vorst
Missouri, (1897-1947)
One of their Pets
lithograph, ed. 26/37
signed and numbered in pencil lower margin, unframed.

Joseph Paul Vorst (1897-1947) was born outside Essen, Germany. He grew up in poverty and then fled Nazi Germany for Sainte-Geneviève, Missouri, where he practiced his craft and became a successful “American” artist whose works have been collected by the MET, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, SLAM, and many others. He gained popularity because of his capacity to capture Missouri folks: the poor and their struggles; German-American and African-American farmers and labourers; farm life in general; country spirituality; and some of the joys and pains of simple living in Hoovervilles during the Great Depression. His own childhood poverty and struggles in Germany and as an immigrant here surely helped him empathise with all sorts of folks in rural Missouri. “One of their Pets” is all about the free-spirited joy of farmlife for two young barefoot Missouri boys. The children are outside playing with their calf on a farm next to a stream and among hills and trees. It is clear that these youngsters live happily and freely in nature among one of their (presumably) many beloved farm pets. Vorst’s focus on new springtime life in the New World reminds us of the artist's entirely new life that he created for himself in Missouri, so very far away from his Old World upbringing.
8 3/8 x 11 3/8 inches