Street to Mbari

1964

Jacob Lawrence

Artist, American, 1917 - 2000

Painted and drawn with areas of flat, vibrant colors, we look slightly down onto a bustling street market in this stylized, horizontal scene. It is created almost entirely with shades of sky and royal blue, buttercup and harvest yellow, caramel and ash brown, and spearmint green with only a few touches of brick and crimson red. The people all have black-colored skin with their features outlined in white. They sit, stand, gather, or walk along stalls lining the street that extends away from us. Some wear caps, headdresses, or are bareheaded. They wear wraps or togas that mostly leave arms bare. Some carry goods on their heads, sit and eat, hold children and babies, or reach for wares. One person holds a white chicken and another leads a couple of goats along the street. The inverted, narrow V of the street meets the shallow V of the rooflines of the buildings or awnings of the stalls just above the center of the composition. The upside-down triangular filling the distant area between the rooflines has a dark yellow ground where densely packed tables, carts, buildings, people, and several chickens are tiny in scale. A strip of blue along the top edge of the painting suggests the sky above. The artist signed and dated the work in graphite in the lower right corner, “Jacob Lawrence 64.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    glue tempera, opaque watercolor and graphite on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 56.52 × 78.42 cm (22 1/4 × 30 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1993.18.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Nesbett/DuBois 2000, no. P64-03


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Terry Dintenfass, New York); Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Radoff, 1965; (Terry Dintenfass, New York, 1983); Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke, 1986; gift to NGA, 1993

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1983

  • The Forty-Seventh Annual Mid-Year Show, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1983, no. 83

1986

  • Jacob Lawrence, American Painter, Seattle Art Museum, Washington, 1986

1995

  • Recent Acquisitions of Works of Art on Paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1995

2001

  • A Century of Drawing, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2001-2002, no. 102

2009

  • Extended loan for use by President Barack Obama, The White House, Washington, D.C., 2009.

2010

  • Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, England, 2010

2017

  • Lines of Influence, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, 2017 - 2018, unnumbered catalogue.

2022

  • Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, 2022-2023.

Bibliography

1986

  • Wheat, Ellen Harkins. _Jacob Lawrence: American Painter._Exh. Cat., Seattle Art Museum,1986:108, 132, pl.63

2000

  • Nesbett, Peter T., and Michelle DuBois. Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000: pp. 183, 261, 267, fig. 132.

  • Nesbett, Peter T., and Michelle DuBois. Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935-1999), A Catalogue Raisonné. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000, p. 156, no. P64-03.

Inscriptions

lower right in graphite: Jacob Lawrence / 64; upper left verso in graphite: Street to MBari / 30 3/4 x 22; upper right verso in graphite: 5092 B "D"

Watermarks

J Whatman 1961 England

Wikidata ID

Q64579995


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