The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

The Sandwich Men

c. 1933

Mabel A. Hewit

(American, 1903–1984)
America
color woodcut
Sheet: 33 x 28 cm (13 x 11 in.); Image: 27.2 x 20.6 cm (10 11/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Jurey in memory of Mabel A. Hewit 2003.372
© Mabel A. Hewit
Location: Not on view

Description

While most of Hewit’s prints depict pleasant pastimes and scenes of everyday life, Sandwich Men is unusual, as it portrays the economic perils of the Great Depression. Having lost their previous employment, the two well-dressed men are reduced to walking the streets wearing advertising placards for meager pay. The anonymous figures, although dignified, lack facial features and emotion. Rather than participating in a dramatic narrative, they play their part in a decorative arrangement of generalized forms and unmodulated masses of color.
  • Midwest Modern: The Color Woodcuts of Mabel Hewit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 24, 2010).
  • {{cite web|title=The Sandwich Men|url=false|author=Mabel A. Hewit|year=c. 1933|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.372