Albert Gold, Market Workers

Market Workers depicts two butchers working in a stall at either the Reading Terminal Market or the Italian Market, two food markets in Philadelphia where Albert Gold drew and painted frequently. A dark red and purple carcass confronts the viewer in the foreground; the butchers remain focused on their work in the background. This scene recalls Flemish market paintings, such as Pieter Aertsen’s Butcher’s Stall (1551), where the meats hang ready for purchase. An earlier lithograph of Market Workers was exhibited at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.