As an established painter in Brazil, Lasar Segall drew on his own experiences in Exodus. The composition depicts a mass of people floating in a compressed yet undefined space, under dreadful conditions. Its drab gray coloring emphasizes the dullness and desolation of the figures. The dense, compressed crowd gives an impression of motion, while the sharp, deep perspective gives the feeling of the interminability of their condition. Relying upon stored impressions of his own voyages, Segall generalizes the migration experience rather than painting a specific historical event.
			Brazilian, b. Vilna, 1891-1957 Brazil, 1947 Oil on canvas Gift of James Rosenberg and George Baker in memory of Felix M. Warburg, JM 25-48