Iver Rose attended drawing classes for children at Hull House and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). He moved to New York in 1923, working primarily as a commercial artist, until returning to Chicago, where he began to take up work with socially relevant themes. His lithographs of the 1930s, Fifi Takes a Walk, and Night Brigade, have a gently satirical flavor; with their rich range of tones and assured drawing and design, they are technically quite impressive as well. Rose worked on the easel division of the Illinois Art Project, and exhibited widely throughout his career. His postwar works—mostly ingratiating genre subjects, such as musicians, clowns, children at play, and people at work—are noteworthy for the artist’s brushy, expressionist application of exuberantly colored oils.

Daniel Schulman

Reference

Iver Rose (1899–1972): Retrospective Exhibition. Naples, FL: Harmon-Meek Gallery, 1983.

Artist Image: Iver Rose, ca. 1950 / Alfredo Valente, photographer. Alfredo Valente papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.