Born in Tidewater, Virginia, Eldzier Cortor was raised in Chicago and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Before moving to New York, where he still lives, Cortor was employed by the Federal Art Project and was an active member of Chicago’s arts community. He served as director of the South Side Community Art Center (see no. 15), which he cofounded.

Cortor is known for his sensual and forthright paintings of black female nudes and for his monumental still lifes comprised of artifacts from African American culture and history. The elongated and exaggerated human forms in his work reflect the influence of African sculpture, to which he was exposed in art-history classes at the School of the Art Institute. He has excelled at drawing and printmaking, which allow him to express his ideas quickly and directly. Although often representing the specific aspects of black life in the United States and the Caribbean, Cortor’s works frequently strike a chord to which all viewers can respond. Created while Cortor was working for the Federal Art Project, Coming Home from Work, like other images by him from this period, focuses on the difficulties of life for working-class blacks living on Chicago’s South Side at a time when many were still experiencing the effects of the Great Depression. The drawing is a testament to the hard work required to survive. An exhausted man, dressed in work clothes, returns home from a long day of work. The rag doll at his feet, which suggests that he supports a family, poignantly echoes the man's spent and weary demeanor. (KNP)