View of Berks County Almshouse by Charles C. Hofmann German, American, 1820 - 1882 oil on canvas, 1972 Museum Purchase, 46.38 Charles C. Hofmann was a German-born painter who settled in Reading, Pennsylvania. Hofmann painted several views of the Berks County Almshouse, where he was detained for several years, as a result of being charged with drunkenness and vagrancy. This painting is an example of folk art landscapes, which often documented life in a particular area. In the nineteenth century, Pennsylvania had several almshouses in the Delaware Valley. These institutions housed the poor and infirm, and were filling with recent immigrants from Germany.

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