Frederick Douglass

White portrayed the celebrated abolitionist and civil rights activist Frederick Douglass repeatedly throughout his career as part of his ambition to produce inspiring images of African American historical figures. During his lifetime, Douglass, for his part, recognized the importance of recording and circulating his own image in the advancement of his cause and strategically employed photography for this purpose, becoming the most photographed American of the nineteenth century. Prior to producing this print, White traveled to Mexico with his wife, the artist Elizabeth Catlett, to study with muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Taller de Gráfica Popular. This lithograph adopts the monumental scale of a mural to present a closely cropped portrait of Douglass as a dignified elder statesman.