Eugene Higgins, a painter and etcher, represented with sentimentality the impact of the homeless, depressed and less fortunate people of society. His passionate sympathy for the poor led him to generalize situation and location, painting archetypal situations rather than observed ones.

Although a Social Realist in subject matter, his style was European, much influenced by Honore Daumier, and this Old World quality made his work less popular than that of others such as Robert Henri, who had a more unique style.

Higgins was born the son of an Irish stonecutter and builder in Kansas City, Missouri, 1874, and after the death of his mother, his father moved him as a youngster to Saint Louis, where he was raised. He briefly a...