American Art Collaborative

Le Clear’s painting presents two Irish newspaper boys and an African American whitewasher absorbed in a game of cards on a city street. The man’s mismatched Union army jacket and U.S. Marine Corps cap tell us that he is an escaped slave who worked for Union forces as a laborer. The boys are playing Seven Up, a game popular among plantation slaves, and the man’s watchful attitude suggests that he is teaching them how to play.