The Fire Boss

1925

George Luks

Painter, American, 1866 - 1933

Media Options

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Painted during a period of labor unrest in 1925, The Fire Boss was intended as a life-size personification of a profession rather than a portrait of a specific individual. Despite his downcast, bedraggled appearance, the miner exudes defiance and inner resolve. George Luks admired miners, and many aspects of the painting indicate that he was familiar with their lifestyle and equipment. The Fire Boss served as the centerpiece of a well-attended exhibition of Luks’s work at the Pottsville Free Public Library in October 1925. The event stirred considerable interest in an area where almost half of the local population consisted of miners and their families. The Fire Boss is a compelling image that arouses sympathy and admiration for the American laborer.

Luks was raised in the heart of Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region and spent his youth in the mining town of Shenandoah, in northern Schuylkill County. He later worked at a drugstore in Pottsville before moving to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Luks’s father was a physician who often tended to the needs of the impoverished and striking miners and was sympathetic to their plight. Luks always had an emotional bond with the area and regarded it as his home. In the 1920s the artist made regular summer painting trips to Pottsville, during which he produced many images of life in the mines.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 153.1 x 128 cm (60 1/4 x 50 3/8 in.)
    framed: 181 x 156.2 x 6.4 cm (71 1/4 x 61 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1954.2.1

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: The Fire Boss, 1925

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1866-1933]; his estate; (his estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 5 April 1950, no. 80).[1] Hildegarde [née Hildegard Loretta Sell, 1906-2005] and Anna Sosenko [1909-2000], New York; (their sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 6 January 1954, no. 42); Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; gift 1954 to NGA.
[1] 1954 sale catalogue incorrectly lists this sale as taking place in 1940. The painting sold for $400.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1925

  • Recent Paintings, Water-colors and Drawings Done in the Anthracite Coal Regions of Pennsylvania by George Luks, Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries, New York, November 1925, no. 1.

  • Public Library, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, October 1925.

1926

  • Paintings, Sculpture and Prints in the Department of Fine Arts: Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1926, no. 466.

1935

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1935-1936.

1951

  • Collection of Hildegarde and Anna Sosenko, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1951, no catalogue.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1959

  • Bouton, Margaret. American Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number One in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 38, color repro.

1965

  • Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 60, repro.

1969

  • Prown, Jules David. American Painting, From its Beginnings to the Armory Show. Geneva, 1969: 129, color repro.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 80, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 196, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 207, color repro. 221.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 572, no. 874, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 229, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: George Luks / Pottsville. Pa.

Wikidata ID

Q20192567

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