Rumors of War, Washington, D.C.

Rumors of War depicts the anxiety and isolation Americans felt after Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, when war seemed inevitable. Influenced by Italian Renaissance art, deLappe's approach to the figure concentrated on the volumes and articulation of the human body. As a teenager, deLappe was befriended by Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and their interest in Surrealism also influenced her work. The figures in Rumors of War inhabit an ambiguous space and have no clear relation to one another, lending the work a disconcerting air common to the work of Surrealists.

In 1939, deLappe was pregnant and living with her husband in Washington, D.C. The pensive woman at the left of the composition is a self-portrait of the artist.