Jacob Lawrence

Bio and Self-Portrait
(b. 1917)
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	The Migration Series Panel No. 57: "The female worker was also one of the last groups to leave the South" 1940-41 Tempera on masonite 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm)		The Migration Series Panel No. 10: "They were very poor" 1940-41 Tempera on gesso on composition board 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm)
	Tombstones 1942 Gouache on paper 28 3/4 x 20 1/2 in (73 x 52.1 cm)		The Migration of the Negro: Panel No. 15 1940-41 Tempera on masonite, 12 x 18 in.
	The Migration of the Negro: Panel No. 3 1940-41 Tempera on masonite		Pool Parlor, 1942, gouache on paper, 31 x 22 3/4 inches (78.7 x 57.8 cm

Jacob Lawrence (b 1917) Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City but was brought up in a settlement house in Harlem. This was the period of the Harlem Renaissance, a time of sharply focused social awareness and a burgeoning black consciousness, which nurtured the young Lawrence and opened his eyes to the life around him. He began taking art lessons early, and during the Depression, he worked for the WPA. It was his own background in Harlem and the hard life of black Americans that informed Lawrence's earliest work. The vibrant work of Lawrence captures the pulsating life of the artist’s native Harlem in the 1930’s. A penetrating observer of his immediate surroundings and his black heritage, Lawrence masterfully combines a modern style with a storytelling tradition. He carefully researched African-American history for his work, at times depicting the lives of important black figures or the hardships endured throughout African-American history.

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