Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Canton, Ohio, 1970s.
By descent from the above to the present owner.

Exhibited
Youngstown, Ohio, The Butler Art Institute, Third Annual New Year Show, January 1-30, 1938, p. 13, no. 141.
Cincinnati Art Museum, The Forty-Fifth Annual Exhibition of American Art, October 1-30, 1938, n.p., no. 106.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, January 29-March 5, 1939, n.p., no. 156, illustrated. (as Approach to the Village)
Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Art League, November 1939.
Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Second Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, March 9-April 21, 1940, p. 32, no. 179.
Ogunquit, Maine, The Ogunquit Art Center, Eighteenth Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Etchings, and Sculpture, 1940.

Literature
"Miss Wentworth One of Judging Winners," The Circleville Herald, Circleville, Ohio, January 26, 1938, yr. 45, no. 22, p. 5.
"28 outstanding Paintings Of Recent Butler Institute Show On Display In Local Library: Singer's 'Rush Hour' And Boza's 'Ohio Flood' On List Of Prize-Winning Canvases in Exhibit Here," East Liverpool Review, East Liverpool, Ohio, April 27, 1938, p. 1. (as Rush Hour)
E.R.B., "Paging New England: Hoyt's Lane, Ogunquit," The Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 9, 1940, vol. LV, no. 267, p. 4.
P.H. Falk, A.A. Bien, eds., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Volume III, 1914-1968, Madison, Connecticut, 1989, p. 427, no. 156. (as Approach to the Village)

The Rush Hour is an exceptional example in Clyde Singer's oeuvre that beautifully exhibits his unique, mastered approach to painting American life. Born in Malvern, Ohio in 1908, Singer spent his formative years in rural Ohio, a place that would remain important to him throughout his career. He received his first formal artistic training when he enrolled in the art school at the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts in Columbus, Ohio. In 1933, Singer was awarded a scholarship to the Arts Students League in New York, where he was mentored by the celebrated Regionalist painters Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), John Steuart Curry (1897-1946), Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), and Ivan Gregorewitch Olinsky (1878-1962). Singer adopted a Social Realist style while in New York and tried to explore and depict the same locations of New York as George Bellows (1882-1925) and John Sloan (1871-1951). In 1940, Singer settled in Youngstown, Ohio to accept a position under Joseph G. Butler III (1901-1981), director of The Butler Institute. Excluding 1942-1945 when Singer served in the Army in the Philippines, in New Guinea, and Japan during World War II and his annual trips to New York, Singer remained in Ohio and retained his position at The Butler Institute until his death in 1999.

In The Rush Hour, Singer provides an intimate and humorous observation of a group of young, beautiful women striding confidently through the city streets during morning rush hour. Each is elegantly and practically dressed, ready for the day's work. The traffic on the road behind them is bustling and a crowd of people appear to be waiting at the street corner. Singer was known to paint himself into his works and the male figure standing at far left watching the group of women is likely a self-portrait of the artist. The woman at center in pearls and a dashing green dress clutches a copy of The Canton Repository newspaper published in Canton, Ohio, possibly placing the scene in Canton. Shortly after completing The Rush Hour in September of 1937, Singer exhibited the picture at The Butler Institute of Art's 1938 Third Annual New Year Show and was awarded the first prize of $200.