Subway

Date: 1934
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1965/1965.18.43_1a.jpg?itok=ok8_E3yN width="348" height="282" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/subway-8731"]] || Title: **Subway**

Artist: **Lily Furedi** Born: Budapest, Hungary 1896 Died: New York, New York 1969

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 39 x 48 1/4 in. (99.1 x 122.6 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service

Accession: 1965.18.43 ||

In this painting Lily Furedi boldly did something that few dare to do: she looked at people on the subway. She took the viewpoint of a seated rider gazing down the car at her fellow passengers. The Hungarian-born artist knew of the subway riders' customary avoidance of staring at one’s fellow riders; most people in her painting keep to themselves by hiding behind a magazine or newspaper, or by sleeping. Those who violate the unwritten rule do so furtively. A woman takes a quiet sidelong glance at the newspaper read by the man next to her, while a man steals a peek at a young woman applying lipstick. Only two women in the foreground, who obviously know each other, dare to look directly at each other as they talk companionably.
 * Exhibition Label: **

Furedi takes a friendly interest in her fellow subway riders, portraying them sympathetically. She focuses particularly on a musician who has fallen asleep in his formal working clothes, holding his violin case. The artist would have identified with such a New York musician because her father, Samuel Furedi, was a professional cellist.


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * From what point of view do we, as viewers, see the scene? Why do you think the artist chooses this point of view?
 * Choose one person in the painting and imagine yourself in that person's shoes while on the subway. What do you see? What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What are you wondering?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Ekphrastic Poetry Lesson <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Common Core: Lily Furedi's Subway and Text Analysis
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Resources: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 1.5;">Links: **