Apr 05, 2018 - Sale 2472

Sale 2472 - Lot 56

Price Realized: $ 8,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
JACOB LAWRENCE (1917 - 2000)
A Negro Woman.

Pen and ink drawing on wove paper, 1958. 241x178 mm; 9 1/2x7 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right.

With a copy of the poem, A Negro Woman, by William Carlos Williams, on the frame back.

Provenance: acquired at Freeman's, Philadelphia, February 24, 2007; private collection; Michigan.

A Negro Woman is a poem that discusses the complexities of an African-American woman from a different world, cradling a bouquet of marigolds - comparing her role in society and her purpose with a flower that is representative of a beautiful, different world. Jacob Lawrence illustrates the moment in the poem where she appears bare-headed, staring into the storefront. With his drawing, Lawrence captures the essence of her, an ambassador between these two worlds.