THE ALLURE OF AN ERA

A New York City couple shares their private collection of WPA-era works and beyond

- John O'Hern

High above New York's Central Park is an apartment with 23-foot-high ceilings and abundant north light. The apartment itself is as much a part of the owners' collections as the art itself. Neighboring apartments have housed notable luminaries from politicians to world-renowned artists.

Prominent in the couple's living room is a painting by E. Oscar Thalinger (18851965), the first painting they bought together. Thalinger's portrait of an apple seller during the Great Depression is emblematic of the collection and the period of American art history that interests them the most. Thalinger and Thomas Hart Benton taught at the Summer School of Art, an offshoot of the Ste. Geneviève Art Colony, outside of St. Louis, Missouri.

When the economy collapsed in 1929, there was, ironically, a bumper crop of apples. Some of the surplus was bought and provided to unemployed men at a minimal cost. Selling apples for five cents apiece, gave them a sense of purpose. Thalinger's figure is wearing the overcoat and fedora he had worn to his office when he was employed.

Another way to make money at the time was shining shoes, a task often left to young boys. Isaac Soyer's A Nickel a Shine is in the couple's collection. The WPA published an edition of lithographs of the painting in 1937.