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Horace Pippin

Quaker Mother and Child

Description

Maker

Horace Pippin (American, 1888-1946)

Title

Quaker Mother and Child

Year

ca. 1935-1940

Medium

  • Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Oil on canvas

Materials

oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

41 x 51.4 cm (16 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: Signed LR: H. Pippin

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Jesse Metcalf Fund

Object Number

44.094

Type

  • Paintings

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

United Histories
Mar 23, 2018 – Aug 12, 2018

Label copy

These works offer contrasting perspectives on motherhood and domesticity. Pippin, a self-taught African American painter, emphasizes the spirit of simplicity in colonial-era Quaker homes. Quietly depicting a mother and her infant child, he evokes associations with what could be seen as a less complicated historical moment in American domestic life. Smith presents a dress she made for herself during a pregnancy. Maternity Dress challenges social conventions and clothing designs that conceal, rather than celebrate, the transformed physical condition of pregnant women.

[see also: 2007.8]

Making It In America
Oct 11, 2013 – Feb 09, 2014

Label copy

A self-taught artist, the grandson of slaves, and the son of a laborer and a domestic worker, Horace Pippin came to painting in his mid 30s. His right arm was crippled during service in France in 1917, but he wrote that the wartime experience “brought out all the art in me.” His subjects, ranging from childhood memories to religious narratives, were first composed in his imagination: “I do over the picture several times in my mind,” he said, “and when I am ready to paint it I have all the details I need.” As a result, Pippin’s work is characterized by clarity, selection, and order.

One Voice, Many Visions
Work By African American Artists
Feb 20, 1998 – Jun 14, 1998
Small Exhibition of Works by Negro Artists
Nov 10, 1957 – Nov 17, 1957
The Negro Artist Comes of Age
Jan 08, 1946 – Jan 27, 1946

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Tombstone

Horace Pippin (American, 1888-1946)
Quaker Mother and Child, ca. 1935-1940
Oil on canvas
41 x 51.4 cm (16 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches)
Jesse Metcalf Fund 44.094

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