Little Tailor c. 1945

Mervin Jules made this print, *Little Tailor*, using a flat, graphic style and a limited color palette. It gives us a glimpse into a tailor's workshop, a world of focused labor and well-worn tools. Jules favors browns and oranges, setting a warm, intimate tone. The texture is intriguing – it looks like he might have used lithography, with flat, opaque color blocks that don't blend but meet and overlap. Look at how the light falls on the tailor's face, small strokes of white over the red which give the impression of light hitting his face, it’s a technique reminiscent of the pochoir printmaking method. The way the artist handles the shadow in the top left corner is so interesting, it is as if Jules is playing with abstraction. There's a lot of implied detail, but the focus is more on capturing the essence of the scene. It reminds me of the social realism of someone like Jacob Lawrence, but with a more playful touch, and the graphic novel art of Art Spiegelman. Jules' printmaking shares that interest in depicting everyday life with both seriousness and a sense of humor.