Picture of the Week: No. 1 John Brown, a man who had a fanatical belief that he was chosen by God to overthrow Black slavery in America by Jacob Lawrence
February 18, 2023
Jacob Lawrence is a notable American social realist painter and one of the first nationally recognized African American artists. He had a successful career that spanned over fifty years. His paintings depict the lives and struggles of African Americans, and his use of abstraction in these works allowed him to appeal to a wider audience. Lawrence is “one of the few painters of his generation who grew up in a Black community, was taught primarily by Black artists, and was influenced by Black people.” Moreover, he was the first African American artist to be represented by a New York gallery.
Lawrence was born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was the eldest child of his family. Lawrence’s family separated when he was seven years old, and when he was twelve years old, his mother moved him and his siblings to Harlem. While in Harlem, he enrolled in Public School 89 and at the Utopia Children’s Center, which offered an arts and crafts after school program for children in Harlem. Painter Charles Alston was in charge of the center at the time, and he recognized Lawrence’s talent as an artist. Lawrence soon developed an interest in drawing simple geometric patterns.
When the Great Depression hit, Lawrence’s mother lost her job and the family had to go on welfare. As a result, Lawrence dropped out during his junior year of high school to work to support his family. He found work by enrolling in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal jobs program, and was sent to upstate New York. While there, Lawrence planted trees, drained swamps, and built dams. Lawrence eventually returned to Harlem, where he became associated with the Harlem Community Art Center, directed by sculptor Augusta Savage; it was during this same time that he began painting his earliest Harlem scenes.
Lawrence immersed himself in African and African American history and culture. This began when he met “Professor” Seifert while playing pool at the Harlem Y.M.C.A. Seifert was “a black, self-styled lecturer and historian who had collected a large library of African and African American literature.” To add, Seifert “encouraged Lawrence to visit the Schomburg Library in Harlem to read everything he could about African and African American culture.” He also invited Lawrence “to use his personal library, and to visit the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition of African art in 1935.”
Lawrence and his family continued to struggle financially during the Depression. Nevertheless, thanks to the persistence of Augusta Savage, Lawrence was commissioned to work on an easel project with the W.P.A. While working on this project, Lawrence became interested in Toussaint L’Ouverture through Seifert’s influence. L’Ouverture was “the Black revolutionary and founder of the Republic of Haiti.” Lawrence decided that the best way to capture L’Ouverture’s life was by painting a series, which he created in 1937 and consisted of forty one panels. He would go on to compose series that celebrated the lives of other notable figures, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown.
Throughout his career, Lawrence received many awards and honors. In 1937, he received a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York. To add, he earned the Rosenwald Grant three years in a row. By the late 1940s, he was the most celebrated African American painter in America. However, he was overwhelmed by his own success and felt that his fellow Black artists were not getting the recognition they deserved. Lawrence struggled with depression and voluntarily entered the Hillside Hospital in Queens, New York in 1949 for treatment. Following his mental health treatment, Lawrence continued painting in 1950 with a reignited passion. By 1960, the American Federation of Arts honored Lawrence with a retrospective exhibition and monograph. Another retrospective of Lawrence’s work was organized in 1974 by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, along with an additional retrospective and major catalogue in 1986, organized by the Seattle Art Museum.
Lawrence’s No. 1 John Brown, a man who had a fanatical belief that he was chosen by God to overthrow black slavery in America is the first of twenty two panels in a series depicting the life of the nineteenth century White abolitionist John Brown. He created the original gouache paintings of the series in 1941 and the screen-print series in 1977, as the original paintings were too fragile to be on view. Brown freed enslaved people throughout the mid-1850s by organizing secret attacks at southern plantations. Brown was and is considered a controversial figure in American history; His efforts were simultaneously deemed heroic yet reckless. Brown’s initial intention of abolishing slavery gradually morphed into a desire for the South’s complete downfall.
This first screen print from the series illustrates a moment in which Brown decides to become an abolitionist. Lawrence employs abstracted, elongated forms, yet Jesus and Brown are still recognizable human figures. As noted previously, this particular aesthetic that Lawrence embraced was well-received by viewers. The blue background of this scene appears to be water, which may foreshadow Brown’s travels to the South in his efforts to abolish slavery. Lawrence situates Brown at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ during the Crucifixion. Jesus’s blood spills down from his feet, appearing to touch Brown’s back on its descent. This proximity between Brown’s back and Jesus’s blood may serve as a means for Lawrence to communicate Brown’s religious zeal; The blood dripping down Brown’s back may suggest how strongly he believed that Christ had placed the responsibility of ending slavery on his back. Lawrence also suggests Brown’s religious zeal in the title of the work, when he describes Brown’s belief that God chose him to end slavery as “fanatical”.
Traditional Christian iconography of the Crucifixion typically renders the cross brown, to suggest that it is made of wood. On the contrary, Lawrence makes the choice to make the cross black in this image. Perhaps the black cross is a way for Lawrence to reference black skin and to draw parallels between Jesus’s suffering on the cross to the suffering of enslaved Black Americans. The blue background, paired with the red from the blood and the white skin of Jesus and Brown may reference the American flag, which may further emphasize the connection between Christ’s suffering and the suffering of enslaved African Americans. Within these connections, Brown’s zeal for Christ in turn becomes a zeal for the abolitionist movement. By drawing these connections, Lawrence provides the viewer with a more concrete understanding of the origins of Brown’s efforts.
However, Lawrence’s choice of John Brown as a subject in turn poses the question of how the viewer might view this controversial historical figure. Brown’s efforts did contribute to the start of the American Civil War, which led to his goal of ending slavery. Nevertheless, Brown’s reckless actions also resulted in bloody battles and numerous casualties, including the death of Brown’s own son. While viewers may support Brown’s desire to abolish slavery, there is also the question of if they agree with the means he took to help achieve this.
Written by Angela Athnasios
Sources: https://americanart.si.edu/artist/jacob-lawrence-2828
https://www.arts.wa.gov/collection-list/?request=record;id=23;type=901