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Reading the Family Letter by Alexander Brook
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography
Reading the Family Letter
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography

Reading the Family Letter

Artist
Year1939
Classification painting
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions75 x 134 in. (190.5 x 340.4 cm)
Credits Commissioned through the Section of Fine Arts, 1934 - 1943
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location
  • In Reading the Family Letter, Brook depicted the mail's role in helping to alleviate the loneliness and homesickness experienced by young men working far from home during the Depression. The picture shows five CCC men, who would have lived together in military-style camps and worked in teams planting trees, maintaining roads, and preserving wildlife. The bare chest of one worker signals the strength and fortitude required to perform eight hours of manual labor each day, and reinforces the heroic image of CCC workers. The man featured in the right half of the composition, however, retreats from his companions to read a letter from his family. His intense focus on the letter shows an eagerness for any news from his family. As CCC worker Belden Lewis described in his 1934–35 diary, receiving a letter from home was often the highlight of a worker's day.