Jacob Burck was born with the name Yankel Buchkowsky on January 10, 1907, in Białystok, Poland. His parents migrated to the United States shortly at age seven. Burck always enjoyed art as a child and many times was found sketching instead of doing his work. He lived in Cleveland until 1924 when he moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League. Burck gain a sense of political radicalism after being trained under political cartoons Boardman Robinson. Burck did many cartoon illustrations for newspapers like “The Daily Worker” and “The New Masses”; both of which were newspapers of the Communist Party. His studio on fourteenth street often became a meeting point for leftists. He too, was affected greatly by the Great Depression and strongly supported Roosevelt and the “New Deal”. Burck befriended many prominent artists of New York's progressive scene and created art that reflected true happenings of the time period he was in.
“The Lord Provides”, displays a common occurrence at the time of the Great Depression; a person being arrested for protesting for jobs, state-relief, and housing. The illustration shows a woman being taken away by a police officer with a baton in his hand. A sign on the ground in the background reads “work or bread”. The woman in the illustration looks distressed and appears to still be fighting what what she believes in. During this time both men and woman would form large protests to try and explain to the government what they need and want. Unfortunately, just like this drawing shows, many people were arrested or forcefully disrupted by the police. Burck named the piece “The Lord Provides”, in order to take a jab at preachers who preached against government intervention to the poor. I interpreted this image as an image of resistance to the American Government, The woman in this photo represents all of those who are fighting for they need but are being held back by higher powers.