Artist:Curry, John Steuart (American 1897 - 1946)
Title:John Brown (Cole #34)
Date:1939
Medium:lithograph
Dimensions:14-3/4 x 11 inches (37.5 x 27.9 cm) (image) 18-1/4 x 13-1/4 inches (46.4 x 33.7 cm) (sheet)
Edition:AAA edition of 250
Description:LITERATURE: S. Coppel, The American Scene: Prints From Hopper to Pollock, British Museum, London, 2008, p. 136-139. Curry produced this iconic American print of the celebrated abolitionist John Brown while he was painting a mural for the Kansas State Capitol Building in Topeka (1937-1942). The mural featured an expansive figure of the ferocious Brown similar but not identical to the one in this lithograph, wide-eyed and bellowing like a modern-day Moses, as he rallies the forces of antislavery with the power of a Kansas tornado seen in the background. Curry's attraction to the subject of John Brown was tied to his own biography, for he was native of Kansas, a state torn apart by the debate over slavery. In 1939, Curry also produced an easel painting titled John Brown (Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which is the work upon which this lithograph is directly based.
Signature:pencil signed lower right margin
Provenance:Associated American Artists, New York, with the original paper label

in excellent original condition with original AAA mat. On original hinges and two pin head sized spots of foxing in the lower margin, otherwise in perfect original condition with strong shading and strong gradation