The Boston Tea Party
Date1975
Artist
Joseph Hirsch
(American painter, muralist, and illustrator, 1910–1981)
MediumNine-color lithograph
Dimensionscomposition: 27 7/8 × 19 in. (70.8 × 48.3 cm)
sheet: 34 7/8 × 22 7/8 in. (88.6 × 58.1 cm)
sheet: 34 7/8 × 22 7/8 in. (88.6 × 58.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Lorillard, a Division of Loew's Theatres, Inc., 1975
Object number1975-138
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextJoseph Hirsch created this print near the end of a long career that began in the 1930s with his studies under Ashcan artist George Luks and his participation in the Works Progress Administration's easel painting program. Hirsch's service to the nation continued through his work as an artist correspondent embedded with troops in the Second World War, but by 1952 the artist's socially engaged work faced McCarthyist censure for his alleged Communist sympathies.“The Boston Tea Party has, for me, the elements of a wild paradox: what was outrageous vandalism two centuries ago, we today cherish nationally as a symbol of the free soul. The vigilant activism that fed the spirit of our forebears is nowhere more tellingly expressed, in my judgment, than in the events of that December night in Boston Harbor.” - JH
William McGregor Paxton
1895
Joseph Christian Leyendecker
1918
