The People Play-Summer 1938

Benton Spruance made "The People Play-Summer" as a lithograph, we don’t know exactly when. But, I can imagine him, with his lithographic crayon, drawing with pressure and release, creating the values and tones, and this teeming mass of bodies. I feel Spruance really tried to be true to what he saw. He really looked, and then he re-looked! He was trying to solve a puzzle, to represent that moment in time. I can imagine him thinking about Daumier and other artists who depicted everyday people with so much emotion and insight. The density and layering of the figures create a real sense of depth and movement. The contrasts of light and dark add to the emotional intensity. Spruance uses the lithographic crayon in a versatile way, sometimes delicate, sometimes quite assertive. This allows for different moods and emotions to come through in each figure. His choice of such everyday subject matter shows a real humanism, a belief in the value and interest of our lives, and it shows his deep empathy for the range of human experience.