Jacob Lawrence

Tombstones
1942

Colorful artwork depicting stylized figures on a staircase with tombstone imagery and vibrant windows.

Characteristic of Jacob Lawrence’s work in the 1940s are subjects drawn from the streets and interiors of Harlem. Although he believed that you cannot “tell a story in a single painting,” Lawrence occasionally worked outside the series structure for which he is best known. In uninflected areas of bold color, Tombstones pictures neighbors and residents in front of an apartment building. It encapsulates the full sweep of life within the African American community, from the cradle—the baby carriage at left, the Madonna-like mother and child at right—to the grave, marked at center by the tombstone seller’s wares. Painted a year after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and a year before the artist would be inducted into the United States Coast Guard as a steward’s mate, Tombstones displays Lawrence’s unflinching realism regarding the cycle of life and death, in his own community and beyond.

On view
Floor 5

Date
1942

Classification
Drawings

Medium
Opaque watercolor on paper

Dimensions
Sheet (Irregular): 30 7/8 × 22 13/16in. (78.4 × 57.9 cm)

Accession number
43.14

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase

Rights and reproductions
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

API
artworks/1192

Audio

Jacob Lawrence, Tombstones, 1942

In Edges of Ailey

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Jacob Lawrence, Tombstones, 1942

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Narrator: Tombstones, from 1942, is a vertical opaque watercolor painting on paper showing a street scene with nine Black people who have the same dark skin tone at various points along a diagonal staircase in front of a building. It is just over 22 inches tall and 30 inches wide. It is hung on a red wall, which faces diagonally towards the windows on the left side of the gallery. There is a stylized representation of depth that gives the background a solid, flat appearance while the variation of angles in the foreground moves the eye around the composition. The people have minimal features yet expressive postures and perches within the composition.
The muted earthy red building facade contrasts with the bright color of the windows and people’s clothing. A young boy in suspenders holds the railing at the bottom of the stairs. In the middle of the staircase, a woman sits in an orange dress, hands folded over her lap looking sullen. To the right, just above, a man in a black suit and black hat leans on the railing with both hands appearing to converse with a woman leaning out of the window in a dark green dress between red drapes. To her right is another window where two wavy plants appear; one which dons a single red flower.
At the top of the staircase, a woman stands in the doorway in a red dress, orange stockings and green shoes leaning with one arm against the door frame and the other hand on her hip. A jagged black shadow or pattern snakes down the left side of her dress. To her left is another window where a woman in a light green dress leans with both of her hands on the sill. Both women appear to look down toward the bottom of the staircase. In all of the windows and doors the background is blue with white masses like clouds creating the impression that the building could be full of sky.
New life and death reckon with each other at the forefront of the painting. On the footpath in front of the building which is at the bottom of the image, a very young child in a red stroller reaches forward for a white doll which has fallen on the ground. On the low wall, a second woman in a red dress, orange stockings, and green shoes holds a baby swaddled in green cloth to her face. Just inside of the low wall between the street and the building, there are ten tombstones, like a small cemetery. They range in color including black, white, and green and vary in shape including pointed tops, rounded shoulders, crosses, or rectangles. Some feature engravings of flowers or figures. Behind the tombstones is a double door under a sign protruding from the building with thin white hand-lettering that reads “TOMBSTONES” in capital letters.
Jacob Lawrence, Tombstones, 1942

In Where We Are (Spanish)

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Jacob Lawrence, Tombstones, 1942

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Narrator: Durante los calurosos días de verano, la vida de los habitantes de Harlem se trasladaba a las aceras. Esta pintura de Jacob Lawrence de 1942 muestra a los vecinos pasando el tiempo al frente del edificio en el que viven. Observa el cartel sobre la tienda del sótano: Lápidas.
Las cruces y los bloques de piedra desnudos que se ofrecen en venta resultan chocantes en esta animada y colorida escena. A la derecha, una madre acuna a su bebé. Sobre la escalera, un hombre charla con una mujer sonriente asomada desde uno de los apartamentos. Lo que aquí se observa es el ciclo mismo de la vida en la escalera de entrada a un edificio de la ciudad.
Sin polemizar, Lawrence mostraba que la muerte era una presencia tangible en Harlem. Gwendolyn Knight, artista, esposa de Lawrence.
Gwendolyn Knight: Creo que Jake simplemente retrató lo que había allí. Y sus primeras pinturas eran sobre la escena de Harlem –lo que había allí–, y algunas cosas no eran muy agradables. Supongo que buena parte de aquello no era agradable porque no vivíamos en una sociedad que fuera muy agradable; y él era tan buen artista que resultaba muy conmovedor, muy emotivo y muy real.
Jacob Lawrence, Tombstones, 1942

In Where We Are

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Jacob Lawrence, Tombstones, 1942

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Narrator: On hot summer days, life in Harlem moved out onto the pavement. This 1942 painting by Jacob Lawrence shows residents passing time in front of their apartment building. Notice the sign over the store in the basement: Tombstones.
The stark stone slabs and crosses for sale seem out of place in this lively, colorful setting. A mother rocks her baby on the right. A man stands above on the steps, chatting up a smiling woman in one of the apartments. We're watching a life cycle in progress on a city stoop.
Without polemics, Lawrence reminded viewers that death was a visible presence in Harlem. Lawrence's wife, the artist Gwendolyn Knight.
Gwendolyn Knight: I think Jake just recorded what was there. And his early paintings are of the Harlem scene-what was there-some of it was not pleasant. I guess a great deal of it was not pleasant because we didn't live in a society that was very pleasant; and he happened to be such a good artist that it was very moving, very touching, and very real.