Museum Collections

According to the son of the artist, Irving Boyer saw this scene of carousing U.S. servicemen and their dates being observed on the Prospect Park train platform by three nattily dressed civilians while riding home on the elevated. When he reached home he made the painting. Boyer, who immigrated to the U.S. from Russia at the age of five and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was display director for Hearns Department Store and created theatre billboards in New York City. In addition to this work, he was always painting at home in Brooklyn. The painting captures a wartime incident that was repeated frequently around the City and the nation. There is a sense both of the humor and of the fleeting quality of the scene.