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Maker(s):Wilson, John Woodrow
Culture:American (1922 - 2015)
Title:My Brother
Date Made:1942
Type:Painting
Materials:oil on panel
Place Made:United States
Measurements:panel: 12 x 10 5/8 in.; 30.48 x 26.9875 cm
Narrative Inscription:  undated, signed at lower right: John Wilson
Accession Number:  SC 1943.4.1
Credit Line:Purchased
Museum Collection:  Smith College Museum of Art
1943_4_1.jpg

Currently on view

Description:
head and shoulders of young man with short hair in open neck shirt looking slightly downward; portrait; man

Label Text:
John Wilson was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of immigrant parents from Guyana. Here he depicts his younger brother, Frederick, against a lightly sketched urban backdrop. The artist was only twenty years old and a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston when this portrait was completed.

Responding to a letter from a Smith student in 1976, Wilson wrote:
Growing up in the forties was a frustrating, sometimes dehumanizing experience for a young black person….
There were no black images symbolizing universal truth and beauty in any art history books and museum collections that I studied, at least at that time. I vaguely wanted to create a form that would make my people and their environment visible. This little painting seemed to sum up what I had been trying to do.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1943.4.1

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

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