Watercolor study, possibly for a potential mural, from noted social realist, WPA painter, and muralist Edward Laning (1906-1981). The painting features a Goodwin’s Department Store display being arranged by a window dresser, with hurried interracial city crowds passing in the foreground. The smiling mannequins in the window are contrasted with seriousness of the window dresser and the everday worry of the passersby – the promise of commerce vs. the reality of life for the working class. Goodwin’s was an infamous anti-union establishment and was also hostile to the poor and working class, notoriously eschewing both layaway and credit programs — a natural subject for Laning who was occupied with such themes for the entirety of his career. Laning’s work is at the Whitney, Smithsonian, Met, and perhaps most famously at the NYPL, where his large mural in the McGraw Rotunda remains one of his masterpieces.
