Artwork
The Way They Live
The Way They Live is an oil painting by the American Impressionist artist Thomas Anshutz. It dates from 1879 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Thomas Anshutz painted a row of sagging wooden houses in 1879.
Thomas Anshutz painted a row of sagging wooden houses in 1879. The walls tilt like drunk men. Kids play in the street. Mothers stand in doorways. Laundry hangs limp on lines.
This wasn’t fancy city life. These were poor neighborhoods near Philadelphia’s docks. Anshutz worked from real places, not imagination.
Look at the cracks in the plaster. It’s like the houses breathe. For more like this, try Thomas Anshutz.
Subject & Meaning
Thomas Anshutz's The Way They Live (1879) is a genre scene that depicts everyday rural life, showing a woman, a boy, a girl, and a house as the central elements of its composition. The inclusion of "work" among the depicted subjects signals that the painting is concerned with labor and the routines of domestic or agricultural existence rather than with portraiture or landscape for their own sake. By framing a family group within and around a house, Anshutz anchors the scene in the lived environment of ordinary people, presenting their daily activities as the substance of the image.
The work thus represents an observational record of how its subjects actually lived, treating commonplace labor and home life as worthy subjects for serious painting.
Technique & Style
The Way They Live is executed in oil paint on a canvas support, a medium typical of American academic practice in the late nineteenth century. The painting is classified as a genre scene, focusing on everyday domestic activity with figures of a woman, boy, and girl and a house setting. The use of oil allows for layered color and subtle modeling, while the canvas provides a flexible ground for the artist's brushwork. No specific details about handling or condition are recorded in the sources.
History & Provenance
Thomas Anshutz painted The Way They Live in 1879 in oil on canvas (61 × 43.2 cm). The painting portrays a domestic scene with a woman, a boy, a girl, and a house, reflecting genre-scene interests of the period. It entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view within The American Wing. No record of a specific commission or earlier owners is provided in the source material.
Overview
Thomas Anshutz's 1879 oil on canvas, The Way They Live, depicts a row of dilapidated wooden houses in a working-class neighborhood near the Philadelphia docks. The composition features a horizontal arrangement of sagging structures with tilting walls, creating a sense of structural instability. In the foreground, children play in the street while mothers stand in doorways, and laundry hangs limp on lines, illustrating the daily realities of the urban poor.
Anshutz executed the work from direct observation of these specific environments rather than from imagination or idealized models. This painting marks an early instance of the artist's commitment to social realism, predating his later fame as an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and his association with the Ashcan School. By focusing on the gritty conditions of tenement life, Anshutz challenged the prevailing academic preference for historical or allegorical subjects, aligning his practice with a growing American interest in documenting contemporary social conditions. The work is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Context
The Way They Live provides insight into the social landscape of late 19th-century American cities, specifically highlighting the conditions of working-class areas. By choosing to depict the less affluent districts adjacent to Philadelphia's industrial docks, Anshutz offered a counterpoint to more idealized urban portrayals. The work thus serves as a document of the realities faced by many urban residents during a period of significant social change.
Artist & collection
Artist
Thomas Anshutz was an American painter who cared deeply about everyday life. He taught art for decades at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, shaping a generation of artists. His students included Robert Henri, who…
