William Aiken Walker
Charleston South Carolina, Maryland, New Orleans, (1838-1921)
Homestead
oil on board
signed lower left, unframed.

This intricately painted family portrait and homestead scene by William Aiken Walker, who worked as an itinerant painter documenting the lives of African Americans in the South, shows us in tiny yet great detail what life was like for a family of African Americans living on a homestead in a wooden home of Creole style. A mother (or grandmother) sits on the front porch with two small children standing next to her, and another couple stand outside around a wash basin and next to another child. Various farm animals roam free: about a dozen chickens (their wooden coop is on the left), a couple of dogs, and a pig. A large cauldron of boiling water is under a fire out front in the yard. We also see jugs, boxes, an animal skin nailed to the fa?ade of the home, red peppers hanging outside to dry, a broom, some boxes, a fence and some laundry hanging on it that had been set out to dry. The genre scene features Black emancipated farmers (former slaves working as sharecroppers) in Reconstruction-era South at work on their laundry day. This painting is a terrific example of Walker's work as he paid close attention to the detail of the lives and livelihoods of those he painted. Walker's father was a cotton agent so he had the chance to travel with him throughout the South and see firsthand what life was like for those who lived and worked there in the late 19th and early 20th c.
6 1/4 x 12 3/8 inches