Patterns of Visibility

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, print culture in the United States often depicted Black women as representations of the African continent, or engaged in acts of servitude or slavery. It was rare to find portraits that captured their individuality in visual art. Some of the few portraits that were made of Black women presented these women as an archetype, obscuring their individuality and personal agency. This mode of representation continued well into the twentieth century. There were, however, a few artists who resisted these conventions of representation in order to shed light on one person’s likeness and story.

The works in this section tackle these histories of representation and examine how and why Black women were depicted as they were. The section also considers new ways of viewing Black women – as individuals worthy of portraiture. More recent works bring the story to the present, demonstrating that portrayal can be used as a strategy to counter older patterns of representation.

Benin Woman III, 1972

David Driskell (American, 1931-2020)

color woodcut on paper

15 5/8 in. x 11 1/2 in. (39.69 cm. x 29.21 cm.)

Museum Purchase, Art Objects Fund, 1974.62. © Estate of David C. Driskell. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York

David Driskell commonly depicted women of African descent in his work, reflecting the influence the women in his family had on his life. In Benin Woman III, Driskell incorporates mask iconography, inspired by Benin masks that depicted the Queen Mother. However, the print was not intended to replicate the mask type in any straightforward way. As if to imbue the print with women’s presence, he bifurcates the face with a more human side (left) and a mask side (right). Driskell incorporates hair, jewelry, and a flower to emphasize the hybrid figure’s femininity, details often incorporated into his works that feature women. Driskell’s work often reckoned with his own relationship to the continent and explored his African roots. By centering women in this composition, and recalling masks of the Queen Mother subject, Driskell considers women of African descent and their role as progenitors of humanity.

There is a Woman in Every Color, 1975

Elizabeth Catlett (American-Mexican, 1915–2012)

color linoleum cut, screenprint, and woodcut

22 1/4 x 29 15/16 in. (56.52 x 76.04 cm)

African American artist Elizabeth Catlett contributed to the Civil Rights Movement with politically engaged sculptures and prints. This print experiments with several techniques to capture different representations of Black women. The woman’s dignified face is rendered as both positive and negative, perhaps suggesting a call for racial equality. Catlett’s inclusion of the multicolored women on the right references the color bar that registers color accuracy in printing. Here, it enacts an integration of the margins (or marginalized) that can be read as a metaphor for the artist’s commitments to global civil rights and equality. The colorful women suggest an accessible and intersectional movement of feminism that would call for the liberation of all women, a prescient forecast that would come into being only during the third wave of feminism in the 1990s.

At Home, Josephine Becton (variant), 1934

James Augustus Joseph Van Der Zee (American, 1886–1983)

vintage gelatin silver print

8 in. x 10 1/16 in. (20.32 cm x 25.56 cm)

Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2003.13.9.

James Van Der Zee made it his mission to capture the beauty of Black life in New York City. Whether documenting glamorous couples on the streets of Harlem or creating handsome portraits of citizens in his studio, he was committed to the visual documentation of the city. His photographs often reveal Black middle-class life, including this portrait of Josephine Becton in her lavish Harlem apartment. Seated at her piano with several large flower bouquets and a heart-shaped box of chocolates, Becton appears at home in her surroundings. She was widely known and well-respected in the African American community because of her husband, who was a famous minister and leader of the World Gospel Feast Party, Inc. This photograph was taken a year after his kidnapping and murder, but Josephine continued to carry on his religious legacy. Images of middle-class life countered views of impoverished African Americans that were prevalent in the work of photojournalists prior to and throughout this period.

Sojourner Truth with Flowers, CDV, 1864

Unidentified Photographer (American)

albumen silver print

4 x 2 1/2 in. (10.16 x 6.35 cm)

Museum Purchase, James Phinney Baxter Fund, 2018.36. Artwork in the public domain.

As a Black woman, Sojourner Truth was expected to wait for freedom to come to her – but that was never her style. She refused erasure and fought tirelessly for the rights of Black people and women as she traveled the country as an orator, advocating for both abolition and women’s rights. This carte de visite of Sojourner Truth exemplifies self-representation and agency, a feat that few African Americans achieved during the antebellum period. In this portrait by an unidentified photographer, she addresses the viewer with a steady gaze and confident posture while she knits, an activity associated with genteel society. The photograph makes it clear that Sojourner Truth’s likeness belongs to her alone: each card bears the quote, “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance.” By copyrighting and selling this image, a symbolic representation of her personhood, she supported her abolitionist and suffragist efforts that deeply impacted her lived experience.

Gamin, ca. 1930

Augusta Savage (American, 1892–1962)

painted plaster

9 x 5 3/4 x 4 1/4 in. (22.86 x 14.61 x 10.8 cm)

Gift of halley k harrisburg, Class of 1990, and Michael Rosenfeld, 2020.52. Artwork in the public domain.

An artist and educator, Augusta Savage was one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Her sculptures often treated Black subjects and physiognomy with great sensitivity, countering mainstream representations of African Americans during the 1920s and ‘30s. Savage took meticulous care in sculpting this bust of a young child, dressed in a wrinkled shirt and flat cap. Created in 1929, Savage’s Gamin garnered acclaim and earned the artist a fellowship that enabled her to study for two years in Paris. This painted sculpture embodies the spirit of Savage’s works in that it represents the dignity of African Americans that many Black artists sought to promote during this period. Harlem and its community were a great source of inspiration for Black artists, and Savage dedicated her life to training emerging African American artists and creating opportunities for them to showcase their work.

Edmonia Lewis, 1870

Henry Rocher (American, 1824–1887)

albumen silver print

3 15/16 x 2 3/8 in. (10 x 6.1 cm)

McGuigan Collection. Artwork in the public domain.

Between 1868 and 1870, sculptor Edmonia Lewis sat on several occasions for photographer Henry Rocher, likely in his Chicago studio. This albumen print is one of several from the same session, during which Lewis adopted a variety of poses. Lewis’s experimentation with her positioning demonstrates her desire to capture her likeness accurately. In this photograph, Lewis leans against a table draped in cloth, embellished with Greek-inspired motifs, perhaps gesturing to the influence of classicism on her work. Her stoic gesture is similar to poses commonly found in portraits of high-society gentlemen and male artists. Together, these conventions legitimize Lewis as a woman artist of color and assert her status, on par with her male contemporaries.

Unidentified Female Bust, 1869

Edmonia Lewis (American, 1844–1907)

marble

22 x 19 x 11 in. (55.88 x 48.26 x 27.94 cm)

Gift of Elizabeth C. Roak and Robert H. Roak, 2017.62. Artwork in the public domain.

Born in New York to a Haitian father and mother of Ojibwe descent, Edmonia Lewis was a distinguished sculptor in the United States and Italy. Forced to withdraw from Oberlin College after racially motivated accusations of poisoning her roommates and subsequent assaults, Lewis ultimately settled in Boston in 1864. There a group of abolitionist leaders supported her efforts to become a sculptor. Lewis is known for her commissioned sculptures, such as the one featured here, but also for work that dealt with her Native American heritage and the oppression of Black people. Many of the sculptures she produced that represent Native American and Black people take on European physiognomy, akin to those featured in this sculpture of an unidentified woman. Art historian Charmaine Nelson has suggested that by sculpting figures of European origin or with European features, Lewis distanced herself from her artwork, ensuring that no one would interpret her works as reflective of her own identity and experience.

[Portrait of a Biracial Woman], c. 1855-60

Unidentified Photographer (American)

quarter plate ambrotype in thermoplastic case

4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in. (10.8 x 8.26 cm)

Museum Purchase, Gridley W. Tarbell II Fund, 2020.22.4. Artwork in the public domain.

This quarter-plate ambrotype shows a woman of distinction dressed for a seated portrait. The embroidered details of her formal dress are heightened by white paint applied on the outer jacket. With perfectly coiffed hair and modest jewelry, she gazes out, away from the camera while resting her hands on her lap. An unidentified biracial woman, her pose suggests someone taking control of her representation, putting forth an effort to appear confident, sharply dressed, and sophisticated, a form of self-assertion made possible by the emergence of photography. Black women had the ability to present themselves to the world in a way that reflected their own ideas of their personhood. This modest-sized ambrotype allowed this woman to capture and preserve her sense of self for generations, a testament to the role photography played in recording more realistic likenesses of Black women during the antebellum period.

Mrs. Nancy Lawson, 1843

William Matthew Prior (American, 1806–1873)

oil on canvas

30 1/8 in. x 25 in. (76.52 cm x 63.5 cm)

Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont. Artwork in the public domain.

This portrait of Nancy Foy Lawson is a rare example of a commission featuring an African American women in nineteenth-century American art. Maine artist William Matthew Prior painted Lawson and her husband in Boston. Prior breaks with precedence and adopts conventions for this portrait similar to those of his white sitters. Lawson is portrayed wearing a fine green dress and white bonnet while holding a book, signifying her education and literacy. She is set against luxurious red drapery and a landscape backdrop, an artistic trope typical in painted portraits. Married to a clothing merchant, Lawson was originally from Maine, though lived at the time in Boston. This painting suggests her elite status as a free Black woman. Prior likely encountered Lawson and her husband William through their shared Millerite connections, a nineteenth century religious movement that believed in equality among races and genders.

Head of a Creole Girl, ca. 1855–1871

Robert Gavin (Scottish, 1826–1883)

oil on panel

10 x 7 1/2 in. (25.4 x 19.05 cm)

Gift of Paul and Anima Katz, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA. Artwork in the public domain.

Scottish painter Robert Gavin was known for his interest in Orientalism, the exaggerated and imaginative scenes often depicting people in North Africa and the Middle East. The same fascination with exoticism would lead Gavin to travel to the United States in 1868 to take on a new subject: Black and mixed-race people in New Orleans. This painting, likely produced during his time in Louisiana, depicts a Creole girl of mixed European and Black descent. The unnamed girl’s soft features and brown skin are emphasized by the tignon wrapped around her head. A tignon was a piece of cloth worn as a turban headdress by free and enslaved Creole women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For fear of Creole women passing for white given their various shades of skin, Euro-Americans passed sumptuary laws to restrict the dress and appearance of people of color. However, Creole women subverted these laws by using colorful headscarves to enhance their appearance.

Mary, 1943

Ilse Martha Bischoff (American, 1901–1990)

oil on canvas

34 1/8 x 32 1/4 in. (86.68 x 81.92 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Gift of the artist. Artwork published under fair use.

Almost a century after Eastman Johnson painted “Dinah,” Black women were still often identified with the term “Negress” in the visual arts in Europe and America. American artist Ilse Martha Bischoff employed the term in the original title of this work, Mary (Portrait of a Negress). While it is unknown how Bischoff encountered Mary, the artist takes time to carefully render the seated woman’s face, making it clear that this portrait is of an individual named Mary and not an archetypal figure. Mary’s expression is warm but distant; she does not make eye contact with the viewer. Set against a blank background, we are invited to craft our own story of Mary’s life. The only information given to us is her brown skin, colorful floral hat, and illuminated shawl draped delicately around her arm, showcasing her keen sense of fashion and self-presentation.

Portrait of a Biracial Woman, 18th century

Deschamps de la Talaire (French, active in Paris, circa 1760)

pastel on paper laid down on canvas

16 1/8 x 13 1/4 in. (40.96 x 33.66 cm)

Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2021.7. Artwork in the public domain.

A label on the verso identifies this pastel as a portrait de fantaisie of a mulatto woman. Portraites de fantaisie were imaginative works depicting fictive sitters. In this example, pastellist Deschamps de la Talaire used idealized facial features and a light skin tone to render a biracial woman. Her African descent is emphasized through the inclusion of the headwrap, often worn by Black women throughout the African diaspora. Deschamps may have drawn inspiration from contemporary visual representations of biracial women or encountered biracial women during his trips through the Caribbean or in France. The ambiguity of the background coupled with the headwrap could place this fictitious subject anywhere on both sides of the Atlantic. As a portrait de fantaisie, this pastel provides insight into how Deschamps perceived biracial women in the eighteenth century and not how those same women would have understood themselves.

Dinah, Portrait of a Negress, ca. 1867

Eastman Johnson (American, 1824–1906)

oil on board

10 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (27.31 x 21.59 cm)

Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina, Gift of Kathleen Hammer and Arthur Seelbinder and partial museum purchase with funds provided by gifts from Maureen and Roger Ackerman, Ryder Harwood Bishop, Angela R. Black, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne L. Burdick, Susan and Van Campbell, Ted Dintersmith and Elizabeth Hazard, Deborah C. and Neil G. Fisher, Laura D. and Stephen F. Gates, Paulo R. and Beth A. Geiss, Mr. and Mrs. James A. Ham, Sr., Pam and Monte Harrington, Bury and Lesesne Hudson, Teresa D. and Roger L. Jones, Lenna Ruth Macdonald and Robert C. Carew, Angela D. and Ben F. Mack, Debbie Rice-Marko and John Marko, Gwen and Layton McCurdy, Peter and Suzanne Pollak, Harriet B. and Richard W. Smartt, Mr. Todd Smith and Mr. Ben Hood, Tom and Lenora White, Mr. John Henry Dick, Mr. Don R. Gestefeld, Mrs. C. Gustavus Memminger, Ms. Evelyn Borchard Metzger and Ms. Doris Rosenthal. Artwork in the public domain.

As an artist, Eastman Johnson was known for his genre paintings and for his sympathetic scenes of African American life. While it is tempting to read Dinah, Portrait of a Negress as a portrait of a single individual, in the 1850s Dinah became an archetypal or stock figure associated with enslaved Black women. Further identifying the woman as a “Negress,” a term coined in the eighteenth century, reiterates her status as an Other. Set against an ambiguous but dark background, “Dinah” leans on her cane, bearing a somber expression. Is she waiting for something? A decision on her fate or the status of her livelihood? This “portrait” highlights the generalizations of representation that circulated during the nineteenth century.