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“The Shoemaker”
Year Created: December 1945
Medium: Watercolor and gouache on paper
Dimensions: 223/4/× 31/in. (57.8/× 78.7/cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, George A. Hearn Fund, 1946
Artist Biography
Mr. Jacob Armstead Lawrence was a talented African American painter who portrayed
and celebrated the lives and experiences of African Americans through his love of art. His art
explored radical and expressive illustrations of contemporary life as well as stories of African
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American history, themes of social justice and historical figures. He is among the best-known
20th century African American painters of his time.
Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 7, 1917. His parents, who
divorced in 1924, migrated from the rural south. The eldest of the siblings, Lawrence’s mother
moved him, his brother and sister to Philadelphia where they ended up in foster care. When he
was 13, they reconnected with their mom in Harlem. In his early teenage years, his mother
enrolled him in an afterschool program in arts and crafts for Harlem children. To entertain
himself, Lawrence would copy patterns of his mother’s carpets and draw the patterns with
crayons.
At the age of 16, Lawrence dropped out of school to help support his family during the
Great Depression. He kept up with painting when he could. He frequently visited the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. He attended classes at the Harlem Art Workshop, where notable
African American artist, Charles Alston urged Lawerence to go to the Harlem Community Arts
Center. Mr. Alston eventually became Jacob’s teacher and mentor.
In 1937 Lawrence won a two-year scholarship at the American Artists School in New
York. After graduating, he received funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal
Art Project. By this time, Lawrence had developed his own unique style of modernism. He was
only 23 years old when he completed 60 small narrative, tempera panels which was named The
Migration Series. The panels told of the mass movement of more than a million African
Americans in the 20th century from rural communities in the South to industrial cities in the
North following the outbreak of World War I.
In the mid-1930s, at Charles Alston’s Harlem Community Art Center, Jacob met his
future wife, Gwendolyn Knight. Gwen had a love of art, and both worked with the African
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American female artist/sculptor, Augusta Savage. Knight and Lawrence were married in 1941.
Knight played a key role in helping Lawrence prepare his boards for the Migration Series and
was an unmatched force in Lawrence’s life, and his most highly respected critic. The couple
never had children.
The outbreak of World War II caused Lawerence to be drafted into the United States
Coast Guard. While enlisted and traveling around the world, he was able to document his war
experiences. During this time, he produced nearly 50 paintings, but sadly, they were lost. After
his tour of duty ended, Lawrence painted his War Series; 14 paintings of Lawrence’s experiences
during his service on a navy transport ship. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant that is
awarded annually to individuals who exhibit outstanding talent in arts. Lawrence and Gwendolyn
returned to New York, after he taught a summer session at Black Mountain College in North
Carolina. He continued practicing his craft but started struggling with depression. In October
1949, he admitted himself into Hillside Hospital in Queens. Mr. Lawrence remained in the
hospital for nine months. While being treated he produced a series of artwork that reflected his
emotional state. He combined suppressed colors and melancholy figures in his paintings. The
connectedness between emotion and color often explains an artist’s palette choices (Fichner-
Rathus). The paintings were exhibited at the New York Downtown Gallery. After being
discharged from the hospital, Lawrence continued his painting with a renewed focus and
enthusiasm. He was honored with a showcase exhibition and an article prepared by The
American Federation of Arts.
In 1962, Lawrence traveled to Nigeria to display his Migration series. He returned in
1964 to live and work there for almost a year. The look of Lawrence’s work began to change by
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the end of the 1960s. Illustrations of political struggles were replaced by racial harmony. He
completed many assigned pieces in the form of prints and murals between the 1970’s and 90’s.
Some honors of Mr. Lawrence are recipient of the National Medal of Arts (1990), the
NAACP’s Spingarn Medal (1970), and the eighteen honorary doctorates. For Lawrence, looking
back was as important as looking forward. His ability to engage the viewer's perceptual,
intellectual, and emotional facilities with the simplest of shapes and limited hues on tiny boards
is always an amazing revelation (Cutler-Bittner). Mr. Lawrence was still actively painting in
preparation for another series of work before his death. On June 9, 2000, he died of lung cancer,
at the age of 82. His wife, Gwendolyn, died in 2005. Their estates benefited the Jacob and
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation.
Art Movement
Mr. Lawrence used his personal and emotional life experiences in his artwork.
He combined modern views, social realism, and cubism (a new art approach to representing
reality) which made his paintings come to life. Lawrence's use of abstraction in depicting the
characters of his stories allow those stories, even if historically specific, to have more universal
appeal, as the viewer can imagine him or herself in similar positions (Jacob Lawrence Paintings,
bio, ideas).
A humanist is what you can call Lawrence. His work not only explained the social
troubles of a separated America but also celebrated the histories of African Americans. Able to
hold a mirror up to prejudice and discrimination, he transcended barriers of race in order to find
the humanity in all people (Dickinson). His paintings were appreciated more in the Harlem
community.
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Throughout his career, his consistent focus was about social protest. He did not allow his
upbringing to deter him from his devotion to art. His works also represented black liberation
history. Harriet Tubman, Toussaint L’Ouverture and Frederick Douglass, all revolutionaries,
played a crucial part in Lawrence’s cubism-modified design. His political commitments, which
earned him a spot on an FBI watch list in 1953, are manifest in his bold and straightforward
depictions of segregation, police brutality, poverty, and violent evictions in his Harlem
community (Dickinson). Through his paintings, he was able to express his lifelong concern for
human dignity, freedom, and his own social awareness. I believe his purpose was to bring
awareness to the African American community and the struggles of this time. He accomplished
this feat.
Art Critics
Lawrence was known as a gentle but tough artist. A painter of black life is what he
described himself as. Some critics seem to think that Lawrence’s acceptance was largely due to
his by-chance encounters with occasional members of the art world who were able to see his
talent over his skin color. Lawrence’s work was dismissed by critics because it did not fit in with
the narrative and formal trends popular at the time. Lawrence achieved popularity but not
understanding.
His art has been described as either modern expressive cubism or folk art. Jacquelyn
Serwer, chief curator at/National Museum of African American History and Culture, which
features Lawrence’s/Dixie Café/(1948) in its exhibition "Visual Art and the American
Experience," says he wanted to make sure “that important aspects of African American history
were documented in a way that could be appreciated and understood by a very broad audience.”
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“He was a quiet individual who listened, looked, watched, absorbed all of what was going on
around him,” according to Virginia Mecklenburg, chief curator at/Smithsonian American Art
Museum, home to nearly a dozen of Lawrence’s works (Diamond). Both Serwer and
Mecklenburg gave their own interpretation of Lawerence’s artwork. They realized that he was
genuine about his work and was captivated by his surroundings. Because of Lawrence’s
profound reality to storytelling, his works remain significant and essential to other African
American artists.
Personal Thoughts and Conclusion
In my studies of Mr. Jacob Armstead Lawrence, I learned he was a kind and humble man
who loved to paint. I did not know of Lawrence, nor did I realize he was an African American. I
really enjoyed gathering information about this prestigious man. I’m from North Carolina and
was excited to read that Professor Lawrence taught at Black Mountain College, a private liberal
arts college, in North Carolina. He also taught in Maine as well as New York. His paintings are
so vibrant and filled with emotion. When viewing Mr. Lawrence’s paintings, I could
immediately tell what was taking place. I was so intrigued that I wanted to include all his
paintings on my title page.
Lawrence had a Baptist upbringing which played a part in him painting a biblical series,
Genesis. The series reflects Lawrence’s youthful memories of sermons about God’s creation. A
bible verse that fits Lawerence’s life is Proverbs 18:16 (KJV), “A man’s gift maketh room for
him, And bringeth him before great men (“Proverbs 18:16 KJV—Bible Gateway”).”
Works Cited
Fichner-Rathus, Lois./Understanding Art. 11th ed., Australia, Wadsworth, 2017.
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Cutler-Bittner, Jody B. “Jacob Lawrence.” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art., vol.
2021, no. 48, 2021, pp. 174–76, https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-8971594.
“Jacob Lawrence Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/lawrence-
jacob/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024.
Dickinson, Stephanie. Jacob Lawrence: Painter. Cavendish Square, 2017.
Diamond, Anna. “Why the Works of Visionary Artist Jacob Lawrence Still Resonate a Century
after His Birth.”/Smithsonian, Smithsonian.com, 5 Sept. 2017,
www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-works-visionary-artist-jacob-
lawrence-still-resonate-century-after-his-birth-180964706/.
“Proverbs 18:16 KJV - - Bible Gateway.”/Www.biblegateway.com,
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2018%3A16&version=KJV.
Accessed 23 Jan. 2024.
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