After studying with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri at the New York School of Art, Guy Pène du Bois spent many of his early adult years dividing his time between painting and writing as a reporter, an opera critic, and an art critic. While working for the New York American shortly after 1905, he produced courtroom sketches and satirical cartoons. As In the Courtroom suggests, du Bois was drawn to subject matter that allowed him to caricature man’s social interactions and analyze issues framed by social class.