Highly regarded by critics throughout his career, George McNeil complemented his artistic accomplishments with a life-long commitment to teaching. Like many of his contemporaries during the Great Depression, McNeil worked for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program that gave unemployed artists an opportunity to provide artwork for non-federal buildings such as libraries and post offices. This striking study for a mural project in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, dates from the period of McNeil’s federal employment. It reveals his keen sense of color and belief that paintings could assume a life of their own.