Harriet Tubman

Object Details

Artist: William H. Johnson, born Florence, SC 1901-died Central Islip, NY 1970
Sitter: Harriet Tubman

Gallery Label: In 1938, William H. Johnson and his wife, Holcha Krake, arrived in New York after fleeing a tumultuous Europe on the brink of war. His homecoming sparked the need to "paint his own people"--a sentiment influenced by Holcha, who, as a textile artist, understood the importance of tradition in contemporary culture.; Harriet Tubman is part of Johnson's 1945 series, Fighters for Freedom, which depicted the heroic figures who led the fight for racial and individual equality. Tubman's likeness is taken from a popular woodcut first published in the 1922 book The Negro in Our Times by Carter G. Woodson. Standing at attention in Civil War-era dress and holding a shotgun at her side, Tubman appears stoic and resolute. Behind her, a path extends into the distance, interwoven with sketchily drawn railroad tracks that split the landscape in two. Beside the young, active Tubman is a bust-length portrait of the elderly woman draped in a lace shawl, perhaps the one given to her by Queen Victoria around 1897.

ca. 1945

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic: African American; Landscape\time\sunset; History\United States\Black History; Portrait female\double portrait; Occupation\other\reformer

GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk72f5288be-8071-4e94-9227-64679b202d68