SHEETS, Millard

American (1904-1967)

Family Flats, ca. 1935

Lithograph on wove paper, full margins. Artist’s proof, apart from an uncompleted edition of 50. Rare. Signed, titled and inscribed “Artist’s proof” in pencil.

15 ¾  x  22 inches  |   40  x  55.9 cm

This lithograph was based on Millard Sheets painting “Tenement Flats” (1933–34), created for the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project and now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It depicts life in the Bunker Hills tenements of Los Angeles, showing a lively domestic scene with women gossiping on porches, laundry hanging, and children playing—a vivid slice of Depression-era urban life. These overcrowded tenement buildings were the first home for generations of immigrant families coming to the U.S. The composition is like a stage set with dense human activity in the foreground.  It is possible that the lithograph predates the painting, as another impression was inscribed 1932.

According to the Annex Galleries, it is probable that the edition was not completed, and it very rarely appears on the market.

Museum Collections:
National Gallery of Art
Yale University Art Gallery
Huntington Library Art Museum, San Marino

Please contact the gallery for the price.  (510) 654-7910