{"id":15163,"date":"2020-02-09T17:41:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T22:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=15163"},"modified":"2020-02-09T17:41:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T22:41:45","slug":"jacob-lawrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/02\/09\/jacob-lawrence\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Struggle,\u2019 Jacob Lawrence Reclaimed African Americans\u2019 Place In American History"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February 1953, Time magazine declared Jacob Lawrence \u201cthe nation\u2019s (and probably the world\u2019s) foremost Negro painter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence was about to embark on what he intended to be a monumental \u201cseries of paintings relating the history of the Negro people in the United States,\u201d as he wrote in a December 1954 application for funding from the Chapelbrook Foundation.<\/p>\n

He hoped that his paintings would \u201cserve in some small way to further enlighten those who come in contact with them of the struggles, contributions, and ingenuity of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Lawrence developed his plan, he came to believe his idea was too narrow. It shouldn\u2019t be just Black history, it should be a broad history of America with African Americans\u2019 roles integrated into it. It should be the American story reflecting all the diverse contributions.<\/p>\n

That series, \u201cStruggle: From the History of the American People,\u201d reunited for the first time in more than 60 years, is on view in the exhibition \u201cJacob Lawrence: The American Struggle\u201d at Salem\u2019s Peabody Essex Museum<\/a> from Jan. 18 to April 26, 2020. (The exhibition is augmented by work from three contemporary artists: Hank Willis Thomas, Derrick Adams and Bethany Collins.)<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/a>
Artist Jacob Lawrence with panels 26 and 27 from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People\u200b,” 1954\u201356. (\u00a9 Robert W. Kelley\/The LIFE Picture Collection\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the principal projects of African American artists in the 20th century was wresting control of their image and story from racist white America. And Lawrence was at the forefront of this effort. He had become one of the most prominent chroniclers of Black life by painting, beginning in 1936, a landmark group of narrative series (paintings all devoted to telling one story) about Haitian freedom fighter Toussaint L\u2019Ouverture, American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, American liberator Harriet Tubman, and America\u2019s Great Migration. All along, he also painted stand-alone scenes of African American life in Harlem, where he lived until moving to Brooklyn in 1943.<\/p>\n

Lawrence rose to stardom when 26 of his 60 panels depicting of \u201cThe Migration of the Negro\u201d from the American South to the North were published in Fortune magazine in 1941. The following year, New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art and Washington, D.C.\u2019s Phillips Memorial Gallery each bought half of the series, and MoMA sent the series on a 15-venue national tour.<\/p>\n

After World War II service in the U.S. Coast Guard from October 1943 to December 1945, he painted his series \u201cWar.\u201d In 1947, the photographer and Fortune magazine editor Walker Evans commissioned Lawrence to paint Black life in the American South. Lawrence made 10 paintings based on his travels to Vicksburg, Mississippi; Tuskegee, Alabama; New Orleans and Memphis. Fortune published three of them in August 1948.<\/p>\n

The following year, Lawrence conceived a series about the history of African Americans that would become \u201cStruggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200b. . . \u200bagain the rebels rushed furiously on our men.\u2014a Hessian soldier\u200b,” Panel 8, 1954, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2018Nervous Difficulties\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawrence began, as he often did, with research at the Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints, a special collection of the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture).<\/p>\n

But before Lawrence made much progress, in July 1949, he checked himself into Hillside Hospital in Queens, New York, suffering from what has been variously described as depression or a nervous breakdown. He remained at Hillside for four months, until November. In January 1950, he returned to Hillside for seven more months.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawrence simply had nervous difficulties neither particularly complicated nor unique, which became so much of a burden that he voluntarily sought help,\u201d his doctor at Hillside told The New York Times in 1950 as Lawrence prepared for an exhibition of paintings he\u2019d made of life in the mental hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawrence has captured the frenzied absorption of patients seeking release from tension in weaving and gardening (occupational therapy) and the concentration of those haltingly uncovering dark secrets (psychiatric therapy),\u201d Aline B. Louchheim wrote in the Oct. 15 New York Times. \u201c\u2026While he was at Hillside Lawrence read Walt Whitman. Now he wants to see more of the poet\u2019s America. Eventually he will document that America too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following year, inspired in part by seeing a lot of theater, Lawrence started painting stand-alone scenes on the theme of \u201cPerformance\u201d\u2014images of concerts, a ventriloquist, strong men, a magician, marionettes, Black Vaudevillians. After more than a decade of ambitious investigations of Black life, Black heroes and racism; after service in World War II; after a tour of the segregated South; after months in a mental hospital; Lawrence may have been taking a step back and using these paintings of performers to mull the purpose of art, to reconsider his direction as an artist.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the U.S. government had begun to see Lawrence as a danger because of his championing of Black folks. In January 1953, a month before Time magazine\u2019s praise, the FBI began assembling a file on Lawrence. That June, the U.S. State Department issued a classified memo declaring Lawrence a \u201cpotential security risk\u201d for perceived links to communism. In August, a secret four-page FBI report alleged that Lawrence had \u201csubversive\u201d ties to arts groups that the Bureau accused of being fronts for Communist Party efforts to recruit Black people by using art to \u201cpropagandize alleged acts of racial discrimination of Negroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200bWe, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility . . . \u201417 September 1787,\u200b” Panel 15, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018All The Peoples\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawrence originally envisioned \u201cStruggle\u201d would total 80 pictures beginning with the \u201clanding of Captain Christopher Newport on Chesapeake Bay in 1706 and end with the armistice of World War I on November 11th 1918,\u201d according to his January 1954 application for a Guggenheim Foundation grant.<\/p>\n

But when he applied for funding from the Chapelbrook Foundation in December 1954, Lawrence wrote: \u201cAs I read more of the history of the United States, I gradually began to appreciate not only the struggles and contributions of the Negro people, but also to appreciate the rich and exciting story of America and of all the peoples who emigrated to the \u2018New World\u2019 and contributed to the creation of the United States. \u2026 So it seems that this project has ceased to be the story of the Negro people in America and become the story of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to show in doing it how the Negro had participated and to what degree the Negro had participated in American history,\u201d Lawrence recalled in a 1968 oral history interview for the Smithsonian\u2019s Archives of American Art. \u201c\u2026In the 1950’s the Negro had not been included in the general stream of American history. \u2026 Up till now he’s been taken out, just excluded, or put aside. We don’t know the story, how historians have glossed over the Negro’s part as one of the builders of America, how he tilled the fields, and picked cotton, and helped to build the cities. Now I don’t want to be sentimental and say well the Negro did all this, the Negro did nine-tenths of this. This wouldn’t be true either. I mean there were many other groups coming from Europe who contributed. However, these other groups always get mentioned. The Polish, the Italians, the English, they’re all mentioned as to their contributions. When I was a child this is all I heard of. All we hear of the American Negro is that he picked cotton. And they don’t even call it a contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Listen, Father! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land; neither are we sure they have done so by water\u2014we therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy . . . \u2014Tecumseh to the British, Tippecanoe, 1811\u200b,” Panel 21, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lawrence began painting \u201cStruggle\u201d at Yaddo, an artist residency program in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he went for a three-month fellowship starting in May 1954. \u201cThe paintings which I propose to do will depict the struggles of a people to create a nation and their attempt to build a democracy,\u201d he wrote to the Chapelbrook Foundation that December. \u201cThis work will begin with the causes and events leading into the American Revolutionary War and end with the sailing of the American Fleet around the world in 1908. Between these two events will be depicted the great migration westward which occurred during the greater part of the nineteenth century, and incidents leading up to and including the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence’s American history is violent, bloody, guns and bayonets. He began painting the \u201cStruggle\u201d series with scenes like Paul Revere\u2019s ride and George Washington crossing the Delaware River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are Negroes with Washington crossing the Delaware purposely so because I wanted to show how he was so much a natural part of the American experience,\u201d Lawrence recalled in a 1968 oral history interview for the Smithsonian\u2019s Archives of American Art. \u201c\u2026This was not a Negro series. It isn’t just Negroes. It dealt with Washington crossing the Delaware, Negroes who where with Washington when he crossed the Delaware. Not as slaves. These people were people who had signed up to take part in the American Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of 1954, Lawrence had completed seven \u201cStruggle\u201d paintings in egg tempera on board, each 12 inches by 16 inches. According to his December letter to the Chapelbrook Foundation, he had scaled back his plans for the series. Now it would be just 60 paintings.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “We crossed the River at McKonkey\u2019s Ferry 9 miles above Trenton . . . the night was excessively severe . . . which the men bore without the least murmur . . . \u2014Tench Tilghman, 27 December 1776\u200b,” Panel 10, 1954, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Prophesy\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe history of the United States fascinates me. Right now, I\u2019m reading it, looking for any episode that suggests a symbol of struggle,\u201d Lawrence told critic Selden Rodman in 1956. \u201cThe part the Negro has played in all these events has been greatly overlooked. I intend to bring it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence drew inspiration from 19th century history painting as well as books: Carl Van Doren\u2019s 1941 \u201cSecret History of the American Revolution\u201d; Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard\u2019s 1944 \u201cA Basic History of the United States\u201d; Roger Butterfield\u2019s 1947 \u201cThe American Past: A History of the United States from Concord to Hiroshima, 1775\u20131945\u201d; Alan C. Collins\u2019s 1953 \u201cThe Story of America in Pictures\u201d; Richard B. Morris\u2019s 1953 \u201cEncyclopedia of American History\u201d; Langston Hughes\u2019s 1954 \u201cFamous American Negroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have also, about three-hundred items and pictures which I have clipped from newspapers and magazines and, which I am using as reference material for this project,\u201d Lawrence wrote in his Chapelbrook application. Including reports on the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education and the 1955 to \u201956 Montgomery bus boycott.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200b. . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?\u2014Patrick Henry, 1775\u200b,” Panel 1, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each of the \u201cStruggle\u201d paintings has a title and then a quotation drawn from political speeches, letters, diaries, military reports, an enslaved man\u2019s petition for freedom. As Lawrence arranged the sequence of the paintings, the first one in the story became Patrick Henry\u2019s rallying speech to the Virginia Convention in March 1775\u2014which is infused with Lawrence\u2019s questioning of the hypocrisy of slave owners fomenting a revolution for liberty: \u201c. . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?\u201d On the back of the panel, Lawrence wrote the title \u201cProtest.\u201d But he came to rename it \u201cProphesy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStruggle\u201d offers narrative paintings in the tradition of social-justice murals (Lawrence as a particular fan of Mexican painters Jos\u00e9 Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros) or photography documenting the 1930s Depression or Stations of the Cross. The compositions are Modernist, flat and graphic, angular, jagged, knife sharp. Lawrence tended to stick with a limited palette of colors, often using them unmixed so they would match across the span of a series. His hues include brown, blue and white plus red, black and green that can evoke the Black nationalist flag created in 1920 for Marcus Garvey\u2019s Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League as wall as green, yellow and red that can bring to mind the pan-African colors taken up by African anti-colonial movements in the mid 20th century.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Massacre in Boston,\u200b” Panel 2, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cStruggle\u201d series jumps through time\u2014Crispus Attucks dying in the Boston Massacre; a laboring farmer; a bloody clash between American rebels and British Red Coats; Revolutionary era spies whispering to each other; women fighting in the war; the British surrender.<\/p>\n

After the Revolution, Lawrence highlights the debate over drafting the U.S. Constitution; colonial explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark meeting (what seems to be) a Shoshone chief; American sailors captured and forced into service by the British Royal Navy (one of the actions that sparked the War of 1812); the British invasion of Washington, D.C, in 1814; and Shawnee Chief Tecumseh\u2019s 1811 loss to Americans at Tippecanoe.<\/p>\n

Lawrence\u2019s American history wraps up with a failed 1810 uprising of enslaved people in Georgia and North Carolina; workers constructing the Erie Canal across New York state between 1817 and 1825; and covered wagons rolling west.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200bOld America seems to be breaking up and moving Westward . . . \u2014an English immigrant, 1817,\u200b” 1956, Panel 30, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Writing history is an expression of values\u2014a statement that this event is important enough that it must be remembered, this event is something we should continue to learn from.<\/p>\n

Lawrence\u2019s \u201cStruggle\u201d interrogates the professed American ideals of liberty, freedom and equality. At the same time, the series is an act of integration. He highlights the Black and Native American stevedore Crispus Attucks mortally wounded at the Boston Massacre, African Americans in the boats with Washington as he crosses the Delaware River, Black men among the soldiers battling the British during the Revolution, and African Americans laboring on the Erie Canal. (He also features indigenous peoples violently displaced by the United States\u2019 growth.) As African American patriots were struggling to integrate American schools and restaurants and public transit in the 1950s, \u201cStruggle\u201d is an assertion that Black history is not separate from American history, rather Black history is an integral part of American history, and white Americans must see and recognize that too.<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/a>
Artist Jacob Lawrence in his Seattle, Washington studio, 1986. (\u00a9 George Rose\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018The Spirit Of The Events\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cStruggle\u201d made its public debut on Dec. 28, 1956, in Lawrence\u2019s first solo exhibition in nearly four years, and his first at New York\u2019s Alan Gallery. The brochure described the show as the \u201cfirst 30 paintings\u201d out of a planned 60\u2014though he would never paint more of the group. \u201cThe series is for sale as a unit only,\u201d the gallery said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawrence\u2019s temperas throughout are spirited, colorful, and rise above sheer realism and postery effects (into which they might so easily have fallen) by virtue of the emotion he has brought to his task and through his consistent symbolizing rather than merely representing his themes\u2014it is the spirit of the events he has chosen rather than mere realistic representation,\u201d Howard Devree wrote in the Jan. 6, 1957, New York Times. \u201cQuotations from letters, documents and speeches have been selected rather than titles for the pictures and help to explain the rather exalted mood which the artist has maintained throughout\u2014the opening words of the Constitution to accompany an interpretation of he convention, the petition of slaves for redress of their wrongs, the wintery silence of Valley Forge and the enduring figures against the snow. Such moments he has made to live again. Beginning in low key he has brightened his palette as he unfolds his story and his flatly stylized forms nevertheless have striking emotional impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Defeat,\u200b” Panel 9, 1954, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Private collection. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Greg Staley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The July 1957 edition of Vogue magazine reproduced three of the \u201cStruggle\u201d paintings in color. Lawrence was \u201can eliminator,\u201d Vogue editor Jessica Daves wrote. \u201cHe has peeled away portraiture and left in the emotion of America\u2019s early days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStruggle\u201d was last exhibited \u201cin its totality in 1958,\u201d the Peabody Essex Museum reports. The entire series was sold to William Meyers of Long Island in January 1959, who proceeded to resell the panels piecemeal over the following decade.<\/p>\n

Organizing curators Elizabeth Hutton Turner and Austen Barron Bailly and the exhibition’s coordinating curator Lydia Gordon have brought together all but five of the 30 paintings in the series at the Peabody Essex Museum. Of those missing five, they located one, but were unable to borrow for the exhibition\u2014apparently because it is \u201ctoo fragile to travel.\u201d Three more remain missing, but they display reproductions of the artworks. One last lost painting they could find no image of\u2014all they know is that it was titled \u201cSpindles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy themes may deal with the Negro but I would like to think of it as dealing with all people, the struggle of man to always better his condition and to move forward,\u201d Lawrence said in the 1968 0ral history interview. \u201c\u2026I don’t think the Negro situation is different. It may differ in a small cultural sense, but I think all people aspire, all people strive toward a better human condition, a better mental condition generally. And if I can express that through the Negro image, I would like to think that I’m making some contribution in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200b. . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?\u2014Patrick Henry, 1775\u200b,” Panel 1, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Massacre in Boston,\u200b” Panel 2, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Rally Mohawks! Bring out your axes, and tell King George we\u2019ll pay no taxes on his foreign tea . . . \u2014a song of 1773\u200b,” Panel 3, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200bI alarmed almost every house till I got to Lexington.\u2014Paul Revere,\u200b” Panel 4, 1954, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Private collection. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country! \u200b\u2014\u200bpetition of many slaves, 1773,\u200b” Panel 5, 1955, from \u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “. . . \u200bwe mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour \u20144 July 1776\u200b,” Panel 6, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country. \u2014Thomas Paine, 1776\u200b,” Panel 7, 1954, from \u000b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200b. . . \u200bagain the rebels rushed furiously on our men.\u2014a Hessian soldier\u200b,” Panel 8, 1954, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Defeat,\u200b” Panel 9, 1954, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Private collection. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Greg Staley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “We crossed the River at McKonkey\u2019s Ferry 9 miles above Trenton . . . the night was excessively severe . . . which the men bore without the least murmur . . . \u2014Tench Tilghman, 27 December 1776\u200b,” Panel 10, 1954, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “120.9.14.286.9.33-ton 290.9.27 be at 153.9.28.110.8.19.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8 \u2014an informer\u2019s coded message,” Panel 11, 1955, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “And a Woman Mans a Cannon,\u200b” Panel 12, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Victory and Defeat\u200b,” Panel 13, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, reproduction image of “Peace\u200b,” Panel 14, 1955 from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Location unknown.( \u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200b\u200bWe, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility . . . \u201417 September 1787,\u200b” Panel 15, 1955, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200bI shall hazard much and can possibly gain nothing by the issue of the interview . . . \u2014Hamilton before his duel with Burr, 1804,\u200b” Panel 17, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit . . . \u2014Jefferson to Lewis & Clark, 1803\u200b,” Panel 18, 1956, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Thousands of American citizens have been torn from their country and from everything dear to them: they have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation. \u2014Madison, 1 June 1812,\u200b” Panel 19, 1956, from \u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Listen, Father! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land; neither are we sure they have done so by water\u2014we therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy . . . \u2014Tecumseh to the British, Tippecanoe, 1811\u200b,” Panel 21, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “Trappers,” Panel 22, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Robert Gober and Donald Moffett. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “. . . \u200bIf we fail, let us fail like men, and expire together in one common struggle . . . \u2014Henry Clay, 1813\u200b,” Panel 23, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200bOf the Senate House, the President’s Palace, the barracks, the dockyard . . . nothing could be seen except heaps of smoking ruins . . . \u2014a British officer at Washington, 1814\u200b,” Panel 24, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness and deliberation with which my whole line received their approach . . . \u2014Andrew Jackson, New Orleans, 1815\u200b,” Panel 25, 1956, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert\/PEM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200bPeace\u200b,” Panel 26, 1956, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Bill and Holly Marklyn. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “. . . for freedom we want and will have, for we have served this cruel land long enuff . . . \u2014a Georgia slave, 1810\u200b,” Panel 27, 1956, from\u000b “Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u000b 1954\u0013-56,” egg tempera on hardboard. Private collection. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, reproduction image of “Immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820 to 1840\u2013115,773,\u200b” Panel 28, 1956, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Location unknown.( \u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, reproduction image of “A cent and a half a mile, a mile and a half an hour. \u2014slogan of the Erie Canal builders,\u200b Panel 29, 1956 from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Location unknown.( \u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Lawrence, “\u200bOld America seems to be breaking up and moving Westward . . . \u2014an English immigrant, 1817,\u200b” 1956, Panel 30, from \u200b”Struggle: From the History of the American People,\u200b 1954\u201356,” egg tempera on hardboard. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University. (\u00a9 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February 1953, Time magazine declared Jacob Lawrence \u201cthe nation\u2019s (and probably the world\u2019s) foremost Negro painter.\u201d Lawrence was about to embark on what he intended to be a monumental \u201cseries of paintings relating the history of the Negro people in the United States,\u201d as he wrote in a December 1954 application for funding from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[691,47,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15163"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15260,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15163\/revisions\/15260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}