Jacob Lawrence
"Windows"
c. 1977

About the Item

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this work by Jacob Lawrence (1917 – 2000). Provenance: This painting is from the private collection of Gwen Lawrence, widow of Jacob Lawrence. Exhibitions: An attached photo (3rd photo) of the back of the piece shows its extensive exhibition history. Biography: Leading African-American narrative painter, Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917. After his father abandoned his family in 1924, Lawrence spent several years in foster homes before reuniting with his mother in 1930 in Harlem, New York. In New York, he attended art classes organized at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Aston and the Harlem Community Art Center with Augusta Savage. There, he met fellow young painters, Aaron Douglas, and William Johnson. From Savage, Lawrence was able to secure a scholarship to the American Artists School and a position with the Works Progress Administration in New York. In 1940, Lawrence completed “The Migration Series”, a sixty-panel set of narrative paintings depicting the Great Migration of African Americans relocating to the North form the South after World War I. He also completed series on the Haitian general Toussaint L’Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Lawrence was drafted to the Coast Guard in 1943, serving in the first racially integrated crew in United States history as a combat artist. From his experiences in war, he created the famous War Series. In 1946, at the invitation of Josef Albers, Lawrence became a teacher at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, known for its avant-garde instructors and students. He was also on the faculty for the Art Students League, the New School for Social Research, and Pratt Institute in New York. In 1971, he was hired as a professor of art at the University of Washington in Seattle, retiring in 1986. After retiring from teaching, Lawrence designed a 72-foot mural commissioned by the city called “New York in Transit”. The piece was installed at the Times Square subway station in 2001.

Creator:
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000, American)
Creation Year:
c. 1977
Dimensions:
Height: 19 in (48.26 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)
Medium:
Gouache
Movement & Style:
Modern
Period:
1970-1979
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Lambertville, NJ
Reference Number:
Seller: AJG1209180031stDibs: LU37412156542
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Jacob Lawrence

One of the first Black artists to receive national acclaim in the United States, Jacob Armstead Lawrence (1917–2000) was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then to Harlem, New York, in 1930. While enrolled in a community after-school arts program, Lawrence developed his talents as a painter, drawing praise and encouragement from artist Charles Alston, who ran the program at the time. Despite his family’s financial struggles during the Great Depression, Lawrence continued his pursuit of the arts, developing a series of multipanel realist paintings dedicated to iconic Black historical figures, including Toussaint L’Ouverture, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. In 1938, he had his first solo exhibition at the Harlem YMCA and had begun to work for the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

In 1940, Lawrence received a grant from a philanthropic organization called the Rosenwald Fund, which allowed him to begin what would become his most famous work: The Migration Series, a narrative piece comprised of casein tempera paint on 60 18-by-12-inch hardboard panels featuring captions he’d written before he began to paint. (Fellow artist and future wife Gwendolyn Knight helped with the text.) Lawrence’s series focuses on the Great Migration of Black Americans from the agricultural South to the industrial North between 1910 and 1940.

By the end of the 1940s, Lawrence had earned widespread recognition for his important work and was the most celebrated Black artist in the United States. He continued covering Black historical figures throughout his career, though he also painted social commentaries on contemporary issues, like World War II and civil rights. He taught at the Art Students League in New York and at Black Mountain College in North Carolina (upon invitation from artist Josef Albers), among other institutions.

Lawrence’s works can be found in the collections of many major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and elsewhere. His painting The Builders hangs in the White House today, as it was acquired by the White House Historical Association in 2007.

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