Raphael Soyer

1899–1987

Introduction

Raphael Zalman Soyer (December 25, 1899 – November 4, 1987) was a Russian-born American painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Soyer was referred to as an American scene painter. He is identified as a Social Realist because of his interest in men and women viewed in contemporary settings which included the streets, subways, salons and artists' studios of New York City. He also wrote several books on his life and art.

His brothers Moses Soyer and Isaac Soyer were also painters.

Wikidata identifier

Q2131415

View the full Wikipedia entry

Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 9, 2025.

Introduction

Comment on works: genre

Country of birth

Russia

Roles

Artist, lithographer, painter

ULAN identifier

500009897

Names

Raphael Soyer, Rafaèl' Sojer, Soyer

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 9, 2025.

Not on view

First acquired
1931

Date of birth
December 25, 1899

API
artists/1256

Filters

e.g. oil on canvas

e.g. gift of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

e.g. 1880

e.g. 2025

Invalid year range

Years must be in the form YYYY

50 works

50 works

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.