Dancers Resting

Moses Soyer was a Russian-born American realist painter. After immigrating in 1912 to the United States and settling in New York, Soyer studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and the Ferrer Art School. A 1926 scholarship permitted Soyer to study drawing in Europe, which strengthened his commitment to figurative art. When many other New York artists began experimenting with abstract expressionism in the 1940s, Soyer continued painting in his realist style, portraying scenes of everyday life with an honest, unembellished yet elegant aesthetic. Soyer was elected to the National Academy of Design and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1963 and 1966, respectively.