Samuel Becher's untitled image of a seated clown playing a double bass (or perhaps plucking a cello) is unique in its wholly objective depiction. He does away with the saccharine, sentimental caricatures of earlier decades and avoids the dark overtones of the shabby jesters of the Depression so favored by many Ashcan-school artists. Simple, expressionist, and intimate, this image is a quiet ode to the entertainer.
Samuel Brecher was known for his images of circus performers and was included in a show of clown paintings alongside Picasso, Walt Kuhn, Toulouse-Lautrec, Georges Rouault, and others in 1942 in San Francisco.