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Jitterbug

Lou Barlow American
Formerly known as Louis Breslow American
1939
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 690
Barlow was a lifelong New Yorker whose printmaking career spanned eight decades—he lived to 103. This 1939 image, likely inspired by a visit to a Harlem nightclub, celebrates a dance craze of the 1930s and 1940s. Two African-American couples dance to music supplied by musicians cropped by the print’s bottom edge; a male singer appears behind a dancer at left. Stylized, flattened forms convey a Jazz Age sensibility, and the choice of wood engraving allowed the artist to use delicate white lines against a dark ground to make the figures seem weightless within the dimly lit interior.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Jitterbug
  • Artist: Lou Barlow (American, 1908–2011)
  • Artist: Formerly known as Louis Breslow (American, 1908–2011)
  • Date: 1939
  • Medium: Wood engraving
  • Dimensions: block: 13 1/2 x 11 in. (34.3 x 27.9 cm) sheet: 16 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (42.6 x 34.9 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Stewart S. MacDermott Fund, 1983
  • Object Number: 1983.1147
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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