Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Egg tempera on fiberboard with pencil
Dimensions:
29 7/8 x 19 15/16 in. (75.9 x 50.7 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1951
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number:
66.2913
Exhibition History:
THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington, DC. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 27 May-19 August 2001. TOUR: WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, New York, 8 November 2001-3 February 2002. DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS, Michigan, 24 February-19 May 2002. HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia, 15 Jun-8 September 2002. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, Texas, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003. SEATTLE ART MUSEUM, Washington, 17 January-20 June 2003.
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Casein tempera and pencil on paper
Dimensions:
30 1/2 X 22 1/2 IN (77.4 X 57.1 CM.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1956
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number:
66.2919
Provenance:
Alan Gallery, New York, to 10 September 1956
Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York, 10 September 1956-17 May 1966
Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Exhibition History:
THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington D.C. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 27 May-19 August 2001. TOUR: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, Texas, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003.
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Gouache and pencil on paper
Dimensions:
sheet: 15 5/16 x 22 5/8 in. (38.9 x 57.5 cm) image: 14 5/8 x 21 3/4 in. (37.1 x 55.2 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1943
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number:
66.2921
Provenance:
Alan Gallery, New York, to 2 May 1959
Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York, 2 May 1959-17 May 1966
Exhibition History:
HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 15 Jun-8 September 2002. TOUR: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, Texas, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003.
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Egg tempera and pencil on fiberboard
Dimensions:
20 X 24 IN. (50.9 X 60.9 CM.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1958
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Folkerson, 1981
Accession Number:
81.241
Exhibition History:
THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington D.C. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 27 May-19 August 2001. TOUR: WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, New York, 8 November 2001-3 February 2002. DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS, Michigan, 24 February-19 May 2002. HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia, 15 Jun-8 September 2002. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, Texas, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003. SEATTLE ART MUSEUM, Washington, 17 January-20 June 2003.
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Tempera, gouache, and pencil on paper
Dimensions:
SHEET: 15 11/16 X 26 7/8 IN. (39.9 X 68.3 CM.) IMAGE: 14 5/8 X 26 IN. (37.2 X 66.0 CM.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1967
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981
Accession Number:
86.2860
Provenance:
Jh Purchased From Dintenfass Gallery, Terry, Ny Jan. 1968
Exhibition History:
HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 15 Jun-8 September 2002. TOUR: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, Texas, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003.
Jacob Lawrence, born Atlantic City, NJ 1917-died Seattle, WA 2000
Medium:
tempera on fiberboard
Dimensions:
35 3/4 x 24 in. (90.8 x 61.0 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1965
Topic:
Ceremony\wedding
Fantasy
Ethnic\African-American
Figure female\full length
State of being\phenomenon\dream
Architecture Interior\detail\window
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Object number:
1986.6.95
Description:
Jacob Lawrence was inspired by the women in his Harlem neighborhood. Like his own mother, they worked hard to support their families and survived on very little money. In this painting a girl rests on a chair in front of two large windows. In one, a tall, elegant lady stands with a bouquet of flowers and in the other, a bride and groom dance and throw confetti. Windows and doorways were focal points of New York's brownstone neighborhoods, creating a link to life on the streets outside. But the bride and groom are clearly in a landscape beyond the city, and in this sense the windows have become screens onto which the young woman projects her fantasies.
"Composing is most important. I seem to gravitate to geometric forms. It is like opening a book of geometry; I may not understand the formula but I love the beauty of line." Lawrence, in Rago, "A Welcome from Jacob Lawrence," School Arts, 1963
Jacob Lawrence, born Atlantic City, NJ 1917-died Seattle, WA 2000
Medium:
tempera on fiberboard
Dimensions:
24 x 29 7/8 in. (60.9 x 75.8 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1960
Topic:
Ethnic\African-American
Recreation\leisure\reading
Figure(s) in interior\civic
Object\written matter\book
Architecture Interior\civic\library
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Object number:
1969.47.24
Description:
Jacob Lawrence researched many of his paintings of African American events by reading history books and novels. Looking back at his high school years, he remembered that black culture was "never studied seriously like regular subjects," and so he had to teach himself by visiting libraries and museums (Lawrence, 1940, Downtown Gallery Papers, Archives of American Art, quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, American Painter, 1986). This colorful view of a crowded reading room may show the 135th Street Library---now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture---where the country's first significant collection of African American literature, history, and prints opened in 1925. Everybody appears absorbed in their books, and the standing figure in the front looking at African art may represent the artist as a young man, delving deeper into his heritage.
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Gouache and pencil on paper
Dimensions:
sheet: 22 x 30 3/16 in. (55.9 x 76.6 cm); image: 21 3/4 x 30 in. (55.2 x 76.1 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1946
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number:
66.2915
Provenance:
The Downtown Gallery, New York, to 31 December 1946
Joseph H. HIrshhorn, New York, 31 December 1946-17 May 1966
Exhibition History:
(THE DOWNTOWN GALLERY, New York. The Twenty-First Annual Exhibition, September 1946, OR Christmas Exhibition, 3-21 December 1946).
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS, New York (organizer). "Jacob Lawrence Retrospective," no. 21, ill. Tour: BROOKLYN MUSEUM, New York, 22 November 1960-2 January 1961; SKIDMORE COLLEGE, Saratoga Springs, New York, 15 January-5 February; ALLEGHENY COLLEGE, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 19 February-26 March; HOWARD UNIVERSITY, Washington, DC, 10-30 April; ANTIOCH COLLEGE, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 14 May-4 June; STATE COLLEGE, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 18 June-20 August; WHITE ART MUSEUM, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, New York. 5-24 September; EAST TENNESSEE STATE COLLEGE, Johnson City, Tennessee, 8-29 October; FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY, Tallahassee, Florida, 12 November-3 December; ARKANSAS COLLEGE, Batesville, Arkansas, 17 December-11 February 1962; ALABAMA COLLEGE, Montevallo, Alabama, 25 February-18 March 1962; TALLADEGA COLLEGE, Talladega, Alabama, 1-22 April; NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE, Durham, North Carolina, 6-27 May; PUBLIC LIBRARY OF WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina, 10 June-1 July; STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, Oneonta, New York, 15 July-9 September; WABASH COLLEGE, Crawfordsville, Indiana, 23 September-14 October; HAMPTON COLLEGE, Hampton, Virginia, 28 October-18 November.
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "Inaugural Exhibition," 4 October 1974-15 September 1975, p. 711, fig. 701, p. 484.
VICE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, Washington, DC. 7 March 1977-15 March 1978
DISTRICT 1199 CULTURAL CENTER, New York. The Working American, 18 October-24 November 1979, no. 20, ill. (Not lent to Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services tour.)
HENRY ART GALLERY, University of Washington, Seattle. Jacob Lawrence, 2 July-27 September 1998.
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "Josef Albers: Innovation and Inspiration," 13 February-11 April 2010, no cat.
Published References:
ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "The Downtown Gallery Papers," microfilm roll ND51, frame 325.
ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC., "The Downtown Gallery Archives," microfilm roll ND65, ill. frame 527.
UNSIGNED. "'Narrative Painter' Lawrence's Works to be Exhibited at Allegheny College," Meadville Tribune (Pennsylvania) (17 February 1961).
FUNDABURK, EMMA L. and MARY DOUGLASS FOREMAN. Art in the Environment in the U.S. (Luverne, Alabama: E.L. Fundaburk, 1975): plate 290.
GLUBAK, SHIRLEY. The Art of America Since World War II (New York: Macmillan, 1976): p. 9, ill.
LIPMAN, JEAN, and HELEN M. FRANC. Bright Stars: American Painting and Sculpture Since 1976 (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1976): p. 121, ill.
FEDERAL BAR NEWS & JOURNAL. 28, no. 9 (September 1981): cover ill.
CARPENTER, JAMES M. Visual Art: A Critical Introduction (New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c. 1985): ill.
UNSIGNED. "Art/Work: Cabinet Makers, by Jacob Lawrence," Personnel Journal 64 (August 1985): 128, ill.
WHEAT, ELLEN HARKINS. Jacob Lawrence: American Painter (Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with the Seattle Art Museum, 1986): pl. 75.
OCVIRK, OTTO G., et al. Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice 6th ed. (New York: Wm. C. Brown, 1990.
NESBETT, PETER T. and MICHELLE DUBOIS. Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935-1999), A Catalogue Raisonne. (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 2000): P46-01, p. 90, ill.
HILLS, PATRICIA, et al. Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 2001): fig. 82, p. 204.
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Gouache on paper
Dimensions:
26 3/4 x 21 9/16 in. (67.9 x 54.8 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1946
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number:
66.2918
Exhibition History:
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "Josef Albers: Innovation and Inspiration," 13 February-11 April 2010, no cat.
"Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, VIII:59. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.
Artist:
Jacob Lawrence, born Atlantic City, NJ 1917-died Seattle, WA 2000
Medium:
oil on fiberboard
Dimensions:
20 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. (52.6 x 42.4 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1958
Topic:
Landscape\tree
Animal\bird
Figure group\male and child
Allegory\civic\unity
Allegory\life\humanity
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Jacob Lawrence, American, b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917–2000
Medium:
Gouache and pencil on paper
Dimensions:
sheet: 30 7/8 x 22 5/8 in. (78.4 x 57.5 cm); image: 29 3/4 x 21 1/2 in. (75.5 x 54.6 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1944
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981
Accession Number:
86.2859
Provenance:
The artist
Downtown Gallery, New York
O'Donnell Iselin, New York, to 1971
Parke Bernet Gallleries, New York, to 13 December 1972 (Sale 3454, lot 161, from the estate of the the late O'Donnell Iselin, New York)
Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York and Washington, DC, 13 December 1972-31 August 1981
Estate of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1981-1986
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981
Exhibition History:
HIGH MUSEUM OF ART, Atlanta, Georgia. "Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence," 15 Jun-8 September 2002. TOUR: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Houston, Texas, 6 October 2002-5 January 2003.
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "Josef Albers: Innovation and Inspiration," 13 February-11 April 2010, no cat.
Jacob Lawrence, born Atlantic City, NJ 1917-died Seattle, WA 2000
Medium:
gouache on paper
Dimensions:
16 3/4 x 22 3/4 in. (42.5 x 57.8 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1941
Topic:
Figure(s) in interior\commercial
Recreation\leisure\eating and drinking
Architecture Interior\commercial\bar
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design
Object number:
2010.52
Description:
Jacob Lawrence painted Bar and Grill shortly after arriving in New Orleans in late summer 1941. Although he had just finished the sixty panels of his epic Migration series, he had only second-hand knowledge of the South, the point of origin for thousands of rural blacks who had made the great migration to industrial cities of the urban north. The South was a new experience for the young New Yorker. Lawrence's mother had come from Virginia, his father from South Carolina, so as he remarked in 1961: "[In 1941] if you weren't born in the South, your parents were. Your life had a whole Southern flavor; it wasn't an alien experience to you even if you had never been there."
Bar and Grill shows the interior of a café that is divided by a floor-to-ceiling wall that separates the commercial space into two realms—one occupied by whites, the other by blacks. Apart from obvious segregation by race, the image also reveals status. White customers drink in comfort, cooled by a ceiling fan above. The number of figures occupying each side of the room reflected the white-black ratio of city residents.
Living in a southern city where legislation required that he ride in the back of city buses and live in a racially segregated neighborhood, Lawrence discovered the daily reality of Jim Crow segregation. This experience emerged in Bar and Grill and other paintings that dealt with what he called "the life of Negroes in New Orleans."
Several of Lawrence's New Orleans paintings were featured along with a group of panels from the Migration series in a groundbreaking exhibition, Negro Art in America, which opened at Edith Gregor Halpert's Downtown Gallery in New York City on December 8, 1941, the day the United States declared war on Germany and Japan. The show was a huge success for Lawrence, who was celebrated by black and white critics alike. Halpert continued to push Lawrence's work, and two years later, when Lawrence was drafted to serve as a steward in the Coast Guard, she persuaded his commanding officers to provide studio space so he could continue to paint.
"In a free government, the security of civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other, in the multiplicity of sects."--James Madison, The Federalist Papers, 1788. From the series Great Ideas.
Artist:
Jacob Lawrence, born Atlantic City, NJ 1917-died Seattle, WA 2000
Medium:
opaque watercolor and pencil on paper mounted on fiberboard
Dimensions:
30 x 22 1/8 in. (76.2 x 56.2 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1976
Topic:
Figure(s) in interior\domestic
Figure group\family
Ethnic\African-American
Animal\bird\eagle
History\United States\Civil Rights Movement
Object\tool
Object\furniture\chair
Object\furniture\table
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
