About the Artwork
John Brown fought to abolish slavery; his heroic life and his death in 1859 have inspired many artists. In 1941 Jacob Lawrence painted a series of twenty-two gouaches on this theme, the only depiction of the abolitionist’s story in serial form; these were acquired by the DIA in 1955. Due to frequent loan requests for the fragile gouaches, the DIA worked with Jacob Lawrence to reproduce the series as screenprints so that the images could be more widely seen.
Jacob Lawrence wrote captions for each of his images in the John Brown series, adapting them from a nineteenth-century biography and imbuing them with the sound of old-fashioned speech. Here John Brown is seen arming men in New York state to help them protect runaway slaves.
John Brown formed an organization among the colored people of the Adirondack woods to resist the capture of any fugitive
between 1974 and 1977
Jacob Lawrence (Artist) American, 1917-2000 Ives-Sillman, Inc. (Collaborator) American, founded 1958 Sirocco Screenprinters (Printer) American Founders Society (Publisher)
Screen print printed in color on wove paper
Image: 20 × 14 inches (50.8 × 35.6 cm)
Prints
African American Art
Founders Society Purchase, Commissioned by Founders Society Detroit Institute of Arts, 1978
F1983.18.6
Restricted
Markings
Signed, lower right: Jacob Lawrence 1977
Inscribed in pencil, lower left: #6 7/60 Signed and dated in pencil, lower right: Jacob Lawrence 1977
Two chop marks at lower right corner, to the left: Ives-Sillman Inc; to the right: Founders Society Detroit Institute of Arts
Provenance
1983-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Sharp, Ellen. "The Legend of John Brown and the Series by Jacob Lawrence." Bulletin of the DIA 67, no. 4 (1993): pp. 15-35.
Jacob Lawrence: Thirty Years of Prints (1963-1993) A Catalogue Raisonné. Seattle and London, 1994, pp. 38-40 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
© 2005 Estate of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Jacob Lawrence; Ives-Sillman, Inc., John Brown formed an organization among the colored people of the Adirondack woods to resist the capture of any fugitive, between 1974 and 1977, screen print printed in color on wove paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Commissioned by Founders Society Detroit Institute of Arts, 1978, F1983.18.6.
More by Artist
After John Brown's capture, he was put to trial for his life in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia)
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For 40 years, John Brown reflected on the hopeless and miserable conditions of the slaves
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For 12 years, John Brown engaged in land speculations and wool merchandising; all this to make some money for his greater work which was the abolishment of slavery
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