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Catalog Data

Artist:
Céline Marie Tabary, 29 Jul 1908 - 23 May 1993  Search this
Sitter:
Loïs Mailou Jones, 3 Nov 1905 - 9 Jun 1998  Search this
Medium:
Charcoal and chalk on textured paper
Dimensions:
Image/Sheet: 45.6 × 30.3 cm (17 15/16 × 11 15/16")
Type:
Drawing
Date:
c. 1940
Exhibition Label:
Born Boston, Massachusetts
This sensitive drawing was made at the beginning of a fifty-year friendship between the American artist Loïs Mailou Jones and her French colleague Céline Tabary. They first met in 1937 at the Académie Julien in Paris. Tabary acted as Jones’s interpreter, and they quickly became inseparable. The duo scouted Paris for scenic locations and painted alongside one another. After Jones returned home to Washington, D.C., Tabary came for a visit—but was stranded by World War II.
Tabary’s drawing of an introspective Jones reflects the strengthened bond that resulted from their time together. To sidestep potential racial discrimination, Jones had Tabary, a white woman, deliver her paintings to exhibition venues. Together, they established the Little Paris Studio for Black civil servants and public schoolteachers. Jones even helped Tabary find a teaching position at Howard University.
After four years, Tabary returned to France, yet their friendship continued, sustaining them through old age and widowhood.
Nacida en Boston, Massachusetts
Este sensible dibujo data de los inicios de una amistad que duró 50 años entre la artista estadounidense Loïs Mailou Jones y su colega francesa Céline Tabary. Se conocieron en 1937 en la Académie Julien de París. Tabary fungía de intérprete de Jones, y se hicieron inseparables. Exploraban la ciudad en busca de lugares interesantes y pintaban juntas. Luego Tabary visitó a Jones en Washington D.C., donde quedó varada a causa de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Este dibujo de una Jones introspectiva refleja el vínculo que se afianzó entre ambas durante el tiempo compartido. Para evadir la posible discriminación racial, Jones pedía a Tabary, quien era blanca, que llevara sus pinturas a los locales de exposición. Juntas establecieron el Little Paris Studio para empleados públicos y maestros afroamericanos. Jones incluso ayudó a Tabary a obtener un puesto de profesora en la Universidad Howard.
Pasados cuatro años, Tabary regresó Francia, pero la amistad de ambas continuó y las sostuvo en la vejez y la viudez.
Topic:
Drawing  Search this
Loïs Mailou Jones: Female  Search this
Loïs Mailou Jones: Arts & Culture\Visual Arts\Artist\Painter  Search this
Loïs Mailou Jones: Arts & Culture\Visual Arts\Artist\Portraitist  Search this
Portrait  Search this
Credit Line:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Object number:
NPG.2019.134
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location:
Currently not on view
Data Source:
National Portrait Gallery
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm45fbb9b6d-5630-4887-a042-6590e1598576
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:npg_NPG.2019.134