This painting depicts two butchers in a stall at either Reading Terminal Market or the Italian Market, Philadelphia landmarks where Gold frequently drew and painted. A purplish-red animal carcass confronts the viewer in the foreground while the butchers remain focused on their work behind. This scene recalls Flemish paintings such as Pieter Aertsen’s Butcher's Stall (1551), where meats hang ready for purchase. An earlier lithograph of The Market Workers was shown at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
Gold was raised in North Philadelphia and received a scholarship to the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art (later the University of the Arts). He was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1942 but was drafted into the Army that same year. Gold served as an official combat artist in Europe, documenting the war in England, France, and Germany. After the war, he received consecutive Tiffany Foundation grants in 1946 and 1947, allowing him to create large oil paintings based on his wartime drawings. He taught at the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Pyle Studio in Delaware. His work has been shown at the Musée Galliera in Paris and the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and is in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Woodmere.
