wood engraving on paper

13”L x 11”W

1945

Bernard Brussel-Smith was born in Greenwich Village, New York in 1914. He pursued studio arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1931-1936, studying lithograph, until he later discovered wood engraving when he attended courses at the New School for Social Research in New York - This would become Brussel-Smith's preferred medium for the next five decades. 

Brussel-Smith supported himself through work as a commercial artist and illustrator, and was hired by publications such as Life, Reader's Digest, Time and The Saturday Evening Post, as well as major corporations including Seagram's and the pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline & French (now GlaxoSmithKline). His fine art pieces often depicted the lives of ordinary citizens--on the subway, in the city and countryside, sailors, fishermen, street musicians, railroad workers--and his work became synonymous with American working-class life. 

Brussel-Smith lived most of his life in New York City, where he taught at the Brooklyn Museum, Cooper Union, City College, and at the National Academy, and in 1952 he was elected an Associate Member. Brussel-Smith died in Bedford Hills, NY, in 1988.