New Deal Art: "Mill"

 

Above: "Mill," an oil painting by Jacob Elshin (1892-1976), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. Elshin seems to have lived an interesting life: born in Saint Petersburg, Russia; a cavalry officer in the Imperial Russian Guard; cartoonist for the North China Daily News; immigrant to America in 1923; frequenter of the Chinese Arts Club in Seattle; and a man whose works were held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Seattle Art Museum ("Jacob Elshin, 85," Detroit Free Press, March 13, 1976, p. 28; "Deaths Elsewhere," The Pittsburgh Press, March 12, 1976, p. 34, and Wikipedia). Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Seattle Art Museum.