Gouache on paper. 24.8 x 36.3 in.

Private collection

The tenements in which poor New Yorkers lived, were a haven for plague and cholera, alcoholism and violence. The first two diseases were based on disastrous hygienic conditions, poisoned floors, dark, damp and cramped rooms, poor nutrition and a life full of lordly despotism and never-ending, hard, underpaid work. 

The owners of such tenements charged overpriced rents for the smallest areas of decaying baracks. They saw no reason to provide a clean building site, free of garbage and toxins, or to carry out necessary repairs. Often, paid thugs were used to collect the impudent rent demands. If the elite dared to enter the New York slums themselves, they did so only at a safe distance and with a protective escort, whereupon they turned away from the unfamiliar suffering in disgust.