Anti-Poverty

Supper

by Joseph Hirsch

At the same time that President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his War on Poverty, Hirsch was painting Supper, his own condemnation of the nation’s inability to care for its elderly poor. 

Twelve men in tattered clothing eat together around a formal table, a probable allusion to the Last Supper.  Their contentedness at having a hot meal and company to share it with is evident, and serves as the basis for Hirsch’s dismay.