American

Joseph Hirsch

U.S. 1910-1981
The Boston Tea Party 75.0028

---

n 1975, Joseph Hirsch was one of the artists chosen to illustrate the American Independence for the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio. He chose as a subject the colonists' protest against the tea tax and British import restrictions in Boston on December 16, 1773. That evening, several colonial patriots dressed in Indian clothing, boarded three British East India Company ships, and dumped their precious cargo of tea into the harbor. Hirsch later explained his choice of subject. "The Boston Tea Party has, for me, the elements of wild paradox: what was outrageous vandalism two centuries ago, we today cherish nationally as a symbol of the free soul. The vigilant activism that fed the spirit of our forebears is nowhere more tellingly expressed, in my judgment, than in the events of that December night in Boston harbor." A student of George Luks, Hirsch became an artist war correspondent in 1943-1944.

 

BACK TO COLLECTION