The Noon Hour

Isabel Bishop became well known during the 1930s for her representations of young working women, many of whom she observed during their lunch breaks in Union Square in, New York City. Unlike contemporary male artists who depicted “office girls,” Bishop did not sexualize or idealize them. Instead, she created empathetic portraits of the upwardly mobile, modern working woman. Bishop studied painting at the Art Students League and was a member of the Fourteenth Street School of social realist painters. She was the only full-time, female instructor at the Art Students League from 1936 to 1937 and served as Vice vice President president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1946, the first woman to hold an executive position in the prestigious society.