Massacre in Boston

1955

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

On a winter night in 1770, a squad of British soldiers opened fire on an agitated group of colonists outside Boston’s Custom House. Resentful of the Crown’s restrictions of their rights, they taunted and threw rocks at the redcoats. Gunfire erupted, and five Americans died in the melee. Lawrence’s electrifying rendering foregrounds Crispus Attucks, a seaman of African and Wampanoag descent, who escaped enslavement to join the patriots’ cause. He became the first martyr of the American Revolution. Lawrence pictured the hero crouching at the center of the composition, gripping his chest and spewing blood. The artist did not mention Attucks by name, but the historical figure was well documented in a clipping file at the Schomburg Library, in Harlem, where Lawrence conducted his research for the Struggle series.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Massacre in Boston
Artist: Jacob Lawrence (American, Atlantic City, New Jersey 1917–2000 Seattle, Washington)
Date: 1955
Medium: Tempera on hardboard
Dimensions: 12 × 16 in. (30.5 × 40.6 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art