A self-taught painter from Pennsylvania, Pippin started making art at thirty-seven, and later became one of the most recognized African American artists in the country. Based loosely on Arthurian legend, Lady of the Lake is his lone painting of a female nude. She takes the form of a sunbather at the edge of the water, sitting with her face held up to the light and next to a log cabin that appears too small to accommodate her. The cabin, canoe, Indigenous-style blanket, rose trellis, bricolage planters, and lush, mountainous landscape suggest that Pippin mined resources close to home to build the composition.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Lady of the Lake
Artist:Horace Pippin (American, West Chester, Pennsylvania 1888–1946 West Chester, Pennsylvania)
Date:ca. 1936–39
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:20 1/2 × 36 in. (52.1 × 91.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Jane Kendall Gingrich, 1982
Object Number:1982.55.1
Inscription: Signed (lower right): H. PiPPiN.
[Carlen Galleries, Philadelphia, by 1940–42; in October 1942 to Downtown Gallery]; [Downtown Gallery, New York, 1942–46; in 1946 to Carlen]; [Carlen Galleries, Philadelphia, from 1946; sold to Hamilton]; Jane Hamilton, later Jane Kendall Gingrich, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., New York, and New Jersey (by 1947–d. 1981; her bequest to MMA)
Philadelphia. Carlen Galleries. "Horace Pippin Exhibition," January 19–February 18, 1940, no. 20 (as "The Lady of the Lake").
New York. Bignou Gallery. "Paintings by Horace Pippin," September 30–October 12, 1940, no. 18 (as "The Lady of the Lake").
Arts Club of Chicago. "Exhibition of Paintings by Horace Pippin," May 23–June 14, 1941, no. 12 (as "The Lady of the Lake").
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Horace Pippin," 1942, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Gifts: 1982," February 16–March 27, 1983, no catalogue.
Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Art Museum. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 9–April 21, 1985, unnumbered cat. (p. 107).
Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Museum of Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 5–June 30, 1985, unnumbered cat.
New York. National Academy of Design. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," July 16–September 1, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Evanston, Ill. Terra Museum of American Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 15–November 10, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 12, 1985–January 19, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 9–March 30, 1986, unnumbered cat.
St. Paul. Minnesota Museum of Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 20–June 8, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Pleasantville, N. Y. Reader's Digest. "Faces and Figures: Selected Works by Black Artists from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 12–April 1, 1988, brochure no. 18.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Landscape Painting," April 4–August 13, 1989, no catalogue.
Tulsa, Okla. Philbrook Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14–June 9, 1991, no. 39.
Miami. Center for the Fine Arts. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 29–August 24, 1991, no. 39.
Omaha. Joslyn Art Museum. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 14–November 10, 1991, no. 39.
Tampa Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 14, 1991–February 8, 1992, no. 39.
Greenville, S. C. Greenville County Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 17–May 10, 1992, no. 39.
Madison, Wisc. Madison Art Center. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 6–August 2, 1992, no. 39.
Grand Rapids, Mich. Grand Rapids Art Museum. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 11–November 8, 1992, no. 39.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin," January 21–April 17, 1994, unnumbered cat. (fig. 78; as "The Lady of the Lake").
Art Institute of Chicago. "I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin," April 30–July 10, 1994, unnumbered cat.
Cincinnati Art Museum. "I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin," July 28–October 9, 1994, unnumbered cat.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin," October 26, 1994–January 1, 1995, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin," February 1–April 30, 1995, unnumbered cat.
Chadds Ford, Penn. Brandywine River Museum. "Horace Pippin: The Way I See It," April 25–July 19, 2015, no. 16 (as "The Lady of the Lake").
"Ex-Porter's Show An Art Sensation." Philadelphia Record (January 21, 1940), sec. 15.
"Negro Primitive Finds Peace After War." Art Digest 15 (October 1, 1940), p. 7.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Pippin Has Display at Bignou Gallery." New York Times (October 1, 1940), p. 26.
"Local Shows." New York Times (October 6, 1940), p. X5.
Selden Rodman. Horace Pippin: A Negro Painter in America. New York, 1947, pp. 13, 83, no. 18, pl. 9, locates it in the collection of Mrs. John D. M. Hamilton, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Selden Rodman and Carole Cleaver. Horace Pippin: The Artist as a Black American. Garden City, N.Y, 1972, pp. 66, 68.
Lisa M. Messinger. "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1982–1983. New York, 1983, p. 63, ill., calls it "The Lady of the Lake" and dates it 1945.
Lowery Stokes Sims. The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Jacksonville Art Museum. New York, 1984, pp. 92, 106–7, ill., dates it 1945.
Wynne Delacoma. "Challenge of the Human Figure: Terra Museum Exhibit Traces a Form Through Modern American Art." Chicago Sun-Times (October 13, 1985), p. 20.
Lowery S. Sims. Faces and Figures: Selected Works by Black Artists from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Reader's Digest, Pleasantville, N.Y. 1988, unpaginated, no. 18.
Lisa M. Messinger inThe Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, p. 127.
Lowery Stokes Sims inThe Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, pp. 111, 113, 117, no. 39, ill. p. 116 (color).
John Brandenburg. "Art Review: Philbrook Show Features 60 Landscape Paintings." Daily Oklahoman (May 29, 1991), p. 13.
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan in Judith E. Stein. I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin. Exh. cat., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. New York, 1993, pp. 92–93, 122 n. 14, fig. 78 (color).
Mark F. Bockrath and Barbara A. Buckley in Judith E. Stein. I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin. Exh. cat., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. New York, 1993, p. 172.
Anne Monahan in Judith E. Stein. I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin. Exh. cat., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. New York, 1993, p. 195.
Leo J. O'Donovan. "Telling the Heart: Horace Pippin." America Magazine: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture 170 (May 21, 1994), p. 19, dates it 1936 and remarks that the work may have been inspired by a Walter Scott poem.
Jacqueline Francis inHorace Pippin: The Way I See It. Ed. Audrey Lewis. Exh. cat., Brandywine River Museum. Chadds Ford, Penn., 2015, pp. 7, 9, 11–13, 87 n. 32, p. 167, colorpl. 16, ill. pp vi–vii (color detail).
Anne Monahan, Isabelle Duvernois, and Silvia A. Centeno. "'Working My Thought More Perfectly': Horace Pippin’s 'The Lady of the Lake'." Metropolitan Museum Journal 52 (2017), pp. 96–97, 99, 101–11, 112 nn. 7, 9, 17, p. 113 nn. 26–27, 32–35, 37, 42, 45–46, 49, fig. 1 (color of reverse), fig. 2 (color), fig. 8 (X-radiograph image), fig. 9 (color photomicrographs of cross-section), fig. 10 (infrared image of verso), fig. 11 (color detail), fig. 12 (XRF imaging of recto), fig. 14 (color and XRF imaging of signature), and ill. p. 94 and cover (color details), discuss using raking light, X-radiography, infrared reflectography (IRR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging, Raman sepectroscopy, and microscopic examination to better understand the artist's process.
Jeremiah William McCarthy inFor America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design. Ed. Jeremiah William McCarthy and Diana Thompson. Exh. cat., Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. New York, 2019, p. 242 n. 20.
Anne Monahan. Horace Pippin, American Modern. New Haven, 2020, pp. 39, 51, 87, 118, 120–21, 129, 133–37, 155, 195, 233 n. 10, p. 239 n. 34, figs. 73–74 (color overall, recto and verso).
"Behind the Scenes with Pauline Pfeiffer Hemingway and Jane
Kendall Mason." Hemingway Review 40 (Fall 2020), p. 120 n. 15.
Horace Pippin (American, West Chester, Pennsylvania 1888–1946 West Chester, Pennsylvania)
ca. 1935–39
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