Grohmann Museum

Home to the world’s most comprehensive art collection dedicated to the evolution of human work.

The Grohmann Museum Collection “Man at Work” is comprised of more than 1,400 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1580 to the present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work—from farming and mining to trades as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. Later, it is machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism– dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.

The earlier paintings depict the early forms of work, such as men and women working on the farm or at home. Later images show trades people engaged in their work, such as the blacksmith, chemist, cobbler, cork maker, glass blower and taxidermist. The most recent works are images of machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism of the mid-18th century to post-World War II. These works, often commissioned by the factory’s owner, are exterior views of steel mills and foundries surrounded by hefty trains and tracks or dark factory interiors where glowing molten metal is juxtaposed with factory workers and managers.