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After his settlement in Szentendre, István Ilosvai Varga chose human environment and everyday happenings as his subjects in most of his pictures - in the beginning, with anecdotic scenes or with a social inspiration. In his period of the 1930s, he often paints workers or poor people. (Houses with a Man Carrying Stones, 1936; Three Workers, 1935; Tramps, 1936; Unemployed Workman, 1938; Poor District, 1939; etc.) One third of his one-man exhibition (Tamás Gallery) of 1937 is of social subject. His attraction towards Mednyánszky's art inspired the forming of his social sensitivity from the beginning.
His picture titled Poor Man is a portrait-like "close-up". (There is another painting similar to this one titled Unemployed Workman.) His stooping posture, the hands hanging hopelessly, and the use of dark earth colours serve to arouse compassion and sympathy.
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