Here, White depicts one of the most compelling and controversial figures in nineteenth-century American history, John Brown (1800–1859), who devoted his life to opposing slavery, particularly its 1850s expansion into the Kansas Territory, in battles presaging the Civil War. In 1859, Brown and his followers attempted a raid on a federal armory in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, which led to his hanging for treason.
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Artwork Details
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Title:John Brown
Artist:Charles Wilbert White (American, Chicago, Illinois 1918–1979 Los Angeles, California)
Date:1949
Medium:Lithograph
Dimensions:18 7/8 × 15 3/4 in. (47.9 × 40 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
Object Number:1999.529.184
Inscription: Signed (lower right, lithograph): CW; inscribed (lower left, in graphite): John BROWN; inscribed (right of previous inscription, previously erased): "JOHN BROWN"; signed (lower right, in black ink): CHARLES WHITE; signed and dated (below previous signature, previously erased): CHARLES WHITE '49; signed (lower right on verso, in black ink): CHARLES WHITE
[Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, until 1991; sold on December 1, 1991 to Williams]; Reba and Dave Williams, New York (1991–99; their gift to MMA)
Newark Museum, held jointly at the Equitable Gallery, New York. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 10, 1992–February 28, 1993, no. 97.
Long Beach Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 4–August 8, 1993, no. 97.
Cambridge, England. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 5–December 19, 1993, no. 97.
Albany. New York State Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 5–March 13, 1994, no. 97.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," April 7–June 12, 1994, no. 97.
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," July 12–September 4, 1994, no. 97.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 9–December 4, 1994, no. 97.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 4–February 26, 1995, no. 97.
Charleston. Gibbes Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," March 26–May 21, 1995, no. 97.
Miami Beach. Bass Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 18–August 13, 1995, no. 97.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 10–November 5, 1995, no. 97.
Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 3, 1995–January 28, 1996, no. 97.
Brooklyn Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," February 25–April 22, 1996, no. 97.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," May 17–July 14, 1996, no. 97.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," August 9–October 6, 1996, no. 97.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 1, 1996–January 2, 1997, no. 97.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 31–March 30, 1997, no. 97.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Kerry James Marshall Selects: Works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 25, 2016–January 29, 2017, not in catalogue.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Charles White: A Retrospective," June 8–September 3, 2018, no. 33.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Charles White: A Retrospective," October 7, 2018–January 13, 2019, no. 33.
Cedric Dover. American Negro Art. Greenwich, Conn., 1960, ill. p. 20 (unknown edition).
Karen F. Beall. American Prints in the Library of Congress: A Catalog of the Collection. Baltimore, 1970, p. 523, no. 1, ill. (not this edition).
Lucinda Heyel Gedeon. "Introduction to the Work of Charles W. White with a Catalogue Raisonné." PhD diss., University of California Los Angeles, 1981, pp. 349–50, no. Ea9, ill. p. 361.
Reba and Dave Williams inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 30, 57, no. 97.
"Art Exhibit Focuses on Works by Blacks During New Deal." Times-Press (May 30, 1996), ill. p. 11 (installation view).
Charles Wilbert White (American, Chicago, Illinois 1918–1979 Los Angeles, California)
1969
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