Joseph Paul Vorst, Essen, Germany/ Ste. Genevieve, Missouri (1897-1947), The Blacksmith, oil on panel. 41 x 28 inches. Joseph Paul Vorst (1897-1947) was born outside Essen, Germany. He grew up in poverty before fleeing 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. Here he has captured a blacksmith in his forge, i.e. his workshop, possibly located in either St. Louis or Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. A blacksmith is a skilled artisan who works heating metals to extremely high temperatures before forging them into tools or weapons or horse shoes, for example. This important profession has been around in human history since the Iron Age (which began in some parts of the world around the 15th c. BCE)—so it’s one of the oldest human professions. A blacksmith needs his metals to reach extremely high temperatures that are indicated by the color of the steel or iron; a red glow represents temps above 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, and as the temps rise the metal glows into lighter and lighter shades, moving through the orange and yellow ranges. A white glow is the hottest, and it means the metal has reached 2500 degrees F and can be worked into any shape (but above that temperature the metal simply melts and any work will be lost). Due to the extreme heat inside the smithy, it is understandable why Vorst’s blacksmith has removed his shirt. We see him here seated and wearing long pants covered with leather pant protectors held up by heavy-duty suspenders. In his right hand he grips the main tool of his ancient craft: the hammer; he shows off his muscular upper body and left hand, which rests on his left thigh. He does not engage with the viewer; he keeps his gaze fixed elsewhere, likely on his fire. From his skin coloration it appears that he doesn’t often remove his shirt while at work. He sits next to the anvil upon which he forges his metals and practices his craft. Vorst created this painting from the image of an actual blacksmith, a man with blue eyes and likely in his fifties, probably at the height of his career, and who might have been of Germanic origin. The archival file on this painting from the artist’s family (now held at Link) includes a photograph of the shirtless and moustached artisan on which this painting was based.