Stuart Davis

Stuart Davis (1892–1964) began his career painting realistic scenes of jazz saloons, but by the 1930s, as recorded music brought jazz to the masses, Davis’s work reflected not just the music but also the technological communication of jazz through movies and the radio. This painting was commissioned by the Federal Arts Project, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, which provided artists, musicians, and actors with employment during the Great Depression. It depicts the seaport of Gloucester, Massachusetts, transforming it into what looks like a jazz-inspired billboard.