The Butcher Cart

Arts of the Americas

1901

George Benjamin Luks
American, 1867–1933

In The Butcher Cart, George Luks portrayed a dark view of New York street life, acknowledging modern technology and class stratification. An old-fashioned, horse-drawn cart packed with butchered pigs lumbers down a slushy street, steered by a figure hunched over the reins. In contrast to this hardworking man, middle-class urbanites shop and spend money in the background, while an elevated train—a sign of urban progress—runs on raised tracks in the distance. Known for his unromanticized depictions of lower-class communities and crowded open-air markets of lower Manhattan, Luks conveyed the physical energy of the neighborhood through bold, expressive brushwork.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: George Benjamin Luks
Title: The Butcher Cart
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1901
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed l.l.: "Geo. B. Luks. 1901."
Dimensions: 55.9 × 68.6 cm (22 × 27 in.)
Credit Line: Friends of American Art Collection
Reference Number: 1941.825

Yang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, exh. cat. (Shanghai: Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 38.

South Bend Art Association, IN, American Painting in the Manner of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Feb. 10–Mar. 31, 1948.
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Paintings by Eleven American Pioneers of the Twentieth Century, Oct. 13–Nov. 8, 1955, cat. 18.
Madison, Wisconsin Art Association, Mar. 1956.
New York, Jewish Museum, The Lower East Side: Portal to American Life, Sept. 21–Nov. 6, 1966; Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution, Dec. 16, 1966–Jan. 18, 1967.
Peoria, IL, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, The 12345678 (Gamble Memorial Exhibition), Sept. 12–Nov. 9, 1967, cat. 32.
Utica, NY, Munson–Williams–Proctor Institute, George Luks, 1866–1933, Apr. 1–May 20, 1973, cat. 2.
Columbus Museum of Art, Visions of America: Urban Realism 1900–1945, Jan. 7–Mar. 3, 1996; Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, Apr. 11–June 16, 1996; Youngstown, OH, Butler Institute of American Art, July 13–Aug. 18, 1996.
Shanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, Sept. 28, 2018–Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 38.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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