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Kitchen Scene, Yellow House

Bill Traylor American
ca. 1939–42
Not on view
Born into enslavement, Traylor—one of the most distinctive Black artists of the twentieth century—experienced dramatic historical change firsthand, including emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Great Migration. At the age of eighty-six, Traylor began drawing urban life around him in Montgomery, Alabama. Revealing a strong sense of design and storytelling, his renderings are striking in their disregard for spatial depth and proportion. Traylor would create more than one thousand drawings and paintings on pieces of found cardboard, including this two-tiered domestic scene featuring both interior and exterior views.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Kitchen Scene, Yellow House
  • Artist: Bill Traylor (American, Benton, Alabama ca. 1853–1949 Montgomery, Alabama)
  • Date: ca. 1939–42
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Graphite and colored pencil on cardboard
  • Dimensions: 22 × 14 in. (55.9 × 35.6 cm)
    Mat: 28 × 22 in. (71.1 × 55.9 cm)
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 1992
  • Object Number: 1992.48
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Two Men Walking, Bill Traylor American, Tempera and graphite on paper, American
Two Men Walking
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ca. 1939–43
Gray and Brass, John Sloan American, Oil on canvas, American
Gray and Brass
John Sloan
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Design for Proscenium for Hershey Community Theatre, Hershey, Pennsylvania, Louis C. Tiffany American, Transparent and opaque watercolor, metallic paint, colored pencil, and graphite on paper mounted on paperboard with window mat, American
Design for Proscenium for Hershey Community Theatre, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Louis C. Tiffany
Designer Unidentified
Tiffany Studios
ca. 1915
Self-Portrait, Bill Traylor American, Gouache and pencil on cardboard, American
On loan to The Met
Self-Portrait
Bill Traylor
ca. 1939–40
Necklace, Meta Overbeck American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American
Necklace
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
ca. 1914–15

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