Artist Julius Bloch was born #onthisday in 1888. After serving in World War I, Bloch took classes at the Barnes Foundation. While his contemporaries were exploring modernism, Bloch favored the realism he had studied at PAFA and depictions of urban life created by members of the Ashcan School, both of which were well matched with the economic downturn of the 1930s. Bloch became one of the first artists employed by the federal government and would gain nationwide attention when his work was recognized by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. -- Image: Man at an Open Window, c. 1954, by Julius Bloch (Gift from the Estate of William Kohler, 1997) #WoodmereArt #JuliusBloch