Artists View New York | Explore & Learn | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

There is no single path to the American Dream, especially when you live in a city as diverse and complex as New York. Fortunes are lost or won whether your route was steady and labor-intensive or risky and quick. Growing up in New York, the artist Jacob Lawrence saw the full spectrum of this activity as part of the exciting fabric of life.

To learn more select the images below:



Pool Parlor, 1942 Jacob Lawrence (American, 19172000) Watercolor and gouache on paper; 31 1/8 x 22 7/8 in. (79.1 x 58.1 cm ) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 194 (42.167)		The Shoemaker, 1945 Jacob Lawrence (American, 19172000) Watercolor and gouache on paper; 22 3/4 x W. 31 in. ( 57.8 x 78.7 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York George A. Hearn Fund, 1946 (46.73.2)

Photograph Credits