The World of Miklos Suba

When artist and trained architect Miklos Suba (1880-1944) immigrated to NYC in 1924, he was confronted with a starkly different cityscape compared to his native Hungary. Suba quickly became enthralled by the American urban landscape. He spent hours wandering the busy streets and industrial areas along Brooklyn’s waterfront in search of his next subject. During these excursions, Suba produced numerous studies and sketches—many with detailed annotations noting color, building material, and dimensions—that he used to complete his paintings in his studio and apartment in Brooklyn Heights.

Suba was particularly fascinated by the borough’s abundance of neighborhood barbershops (and their colorful barber poles), like the one featured in today’s Photo of the Week. This watercolor study for “Barber Pole, South 8th Street” depicts the front entrance to the Eagle Barber Shop, located at 67 South 8th Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. An estimated 4,000 barbers worked in Brooklyn around the time Suba created this work. Many belonged to influential and powerful unions like the Barbers and Beauty Culturists Union and Journeymen Barbers' International Union. Strikes over higher wages and working conditions were common. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle recounts a 1913 strike outside this very same barbershop. The article describes how 1,000 journeymen barbers protested in the streets, including Eagle Shop proprietor Louis Fornace, who stopped mid haircut to join his fellow “scissor wielders.”

The Center for Brooklyn History has the largest collection of artwork by Miklos Suba in the United States. The collection was processed and digitized thanks to the generous support of the Luce Foundation.

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal of Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.