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Peace

1955
Not on view
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.
The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783 by representatives of Great Britain and the United States, formally recognized American independence. In this haunting image, now known only through a black-and-white reproduction, three abandoned cannons—one foregrounded in a central rocky setting, the other two seen at left and right on a distant horizon—capture the tenuousness of peace with Britain. Only a few flowers and tall grass, plaintive symbols of hope, are growing in the war-scarred landscape. Within a generation, ongoing conflicts with the Crown would escalate into the War of 1812, America’s final revolt against British rule and a later subject for Lawrence in the Struggle series.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Peace
  • Artist: Jacob Lawrence (American, Atlantic City, New Jersey 1917–2000 Seattle, Washington)
  • Date: 1955
  • Medium: Reproduction of egg tempera original
  • Dimensions: 12 × 16 in. (30.5 × 40.6 cm)
  • Classification: Reproductions
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2022 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art