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Vera Bock - Work pays America! Prosperity

Work pays America! Prosperity (1936-1941)

Vera Bock (American, 1905 - 1973)
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License: All public domain files can be freely used for personal and commercial projects.
Why is this image in the public domain?
This work was commissioned by the United States federal government as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. It is not subject to copyright protection.

Vera Bock was a Russian-born artist who spent most of her career in the United States. She is known for her book illustrations and for the posters she made for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.

Vera Bock was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 4 April 1905. Her father was an American banker and her mother was a Russian concert pianist. During the Russian Revolution her family fled to the United States by way of Siberia, China and Japan. They reached San Francisco in 1917. Bock later studied in Switzerland and England. She was trained in painting and drawing, and spent a year in England studying woodcutting, manuscript illumination, printing and photogravure.

Bock may be best known for her children’s book illustrations. Her first book illustrations were published in 1929 in Waldemar Bonsels’s The Adventures of Maya the Bee and Ella Young's The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales. The latter book was reviewed for the Newbery Medal in 1930, and was retroactively given Honor Book status in 1938. The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature at the University of Minnesota holds many of Bock's illustrations.

Bock designed posters for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. She worked for the New York City poster division from 1936 to 1939. Bock's bold Art Deco posters advertised art exhibitions and theater performances, and encouraged activities like travel, exercise, community events, educational programs, writing letters, and saving trees. Her silkscreen posters have a distinctive appearance similar to woodblocks, dominated by strong solid forms that often show a Germanic influence. She made a series of posters, History of Civic Services, which are reminiscent of the forms she often used in children's books.

During the 1940s Bock worked as an illustrator for Life and Coronet. Her work was shown in exhibitions at the New York Public Library (1942), Art Directors Club of New York (1946), Pierpont Morgan Library (International Exhibition of Illustrated Books, 1946), and New York Public Library (Ten Year's of American Illustration, 1951). Bock retired to Lincolnville, Maine. She died in New York in 1973.

In Collection: Works Progress Administration (WPA) Posters (View all 81)

Be clean in everything that concerns your baby

Be clean in everything that concerns your baby (1936-1939)

Erik Hans Krause (American, 1899-1990)
Books are weapons

Books are weapons (1941-1943)

Anonymous
The W.P.A. Federal Theatre Negro Unit presents Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The W.P.A. Federal Theatre Negro Unit presents Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1936)

Anthony Velonis (American, 1911-1997)
Swim for health in safe and pure pools

Swim for health in safe and pure pools (1940)

Anonymous
Don’t gum up a book

Don’t gum up a book (1936)

Arlington Gregg (American, 1909 - 1964)
WPA poster design showing the head and hands of a woman holding flowers and wheat

WPA poster design showing the head and hands of a woman holding flowers and wheat (1936-1941)

Anonymous
Protect her from tuberculosis

Protect her from tuberculosis (1936-1938)

Erik Hans Krause (American, 1899-1990)
100 water colors by easel artists of the New York City WPA Art Project

100 water colors by easel artists of the New York City WPA Art Project (1940)

Anonymous
Rain is bad for a book!

Rain is bad for a book! (1936)

Arlington Gregg (American, 1909 - 1964)
Federal Theatre presents ‘Big blow’

Federal Theatre presents ‘Big blow’ (1936-1939)

Richard Halls (American, 1906 - )
Federal Theatre presents George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Androcles and the lion’

Federal Theatre presents George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Androcles and the lion’ (1936-1939)

Richard Halls (American, 1906 - )
Be kind to books club

Be kind to books club (1936-1940)

Arlington Gregg (American, 1909 - 1964)
Theatre of Music

Theatre of Music (1936-1941)

Anonymous
October’s ‘bright blue weather’ A good time to read!

October’s ‘bright blue weather’ A good time to read! (1936)

Albert M. Bender (American, 20th Century)
Cavalcade of the American negro

Cavalcade of the American negro (1940)

Cleo Sara (American, 20th Century)
View all 81 Artworks

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