Gouache and pencil on newspaper, circa 1960. 325x204 mm; 13x8 1/4 inches. Intialed in pencil, lower center recto.
Ex-collection private collection, Chicago.
According to the artist's son, Paul, before Solman (1909-2008) became a professor of painting at the City University of New York, he spent roughly 20 years working as a clerk at the Belmont, Aqueduct and Jamaica raceways. From 1945 until around 1963, Solman spent his long commute making pencil studies of fellow straphangers, to which he added gouache at his studio. He considered the subway the best place to create figure studies, as his life subjects would effortlessly hold poses for long periods of time.
