Artist Robert Koehler (1850–1917) painted this scene in Munich. When
it was exhibited in the U.S. in the spring of 1886 it created a
sensation. One senses immediately that the confrontation between a
factory employer (at left, in top hat) and a group of rebellious workers
is about to break out into violence. The distance between the owner’s
elegant brick villa, upon whose steps the employer is symbolically
situated, and the factory in the background has been aggressively
foreshortened by the artist. This allows Koehler to better emphasize the
workers who stream out of the factory to come support the shop-floor
representative, who, standing on the ground, confronts the factory
employer from a position of literal inferiority. The tenseness of the
situation is expressed by the representative’s stance and his red shirt,
not to mention the foreground figure who arms himself with a rock. The
employer’s stiff posture, reinforced by his black suit and top hat,
suggests that he is not inclined towards compromise; even his own
servant, standing behind him, seems fearful of what will come after the
heated exchange of words.
This picture was painted after Koehler had experienced the workers’
movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Born to German parents in
Hamburg, Koehler moved from Germany to the U.S. as a child; the family
settled in Milwaukee, one of the preferred destinations for German
immigrants. Koehler studied art—specifically lithography—in Pittsburgh
and New York, and then attended the Art Academy in Munich. When this
painting was shown at the spring 1886 exhibition of the National Academy
of Design in New York, it was considered the most significant piece on
display. Why? Because its exhibition coincided with the culmination of
American workers’ demands for an eight-hour workday—a national wave of
strikes involving about 350,000 workers in over 11,000 enterprises.
Efforts to put down these strikes resulted in the Haymarket Massacre in
Chicago on May 4, 1886.