Negro Head
1927
24 x 18 1/2 in. (61 x 47 cm)
John Steuart Curry
United States
(Dunavant, KS, 1897 - 1946, Madison, WI)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
2005.31
Location: Currently on view
Until research identifies the sitter, Portrait of a Youth or Portrait of a Young Man may be applied as a more appropriate title.
Unfortunately, the name of this young man was not recorded. The title that the work has carried for many years is further dehumanizing. In the historical moment when this painting was made and exhibited, the term “negro” was commonly used—including by significant African American figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Langston Hughes—to refer to a Black person. Today, however, this terminology is outdated and inappropriate.
John Steuart Curry is known for his narrative and landscape paintings of life in his home state of Kansas. When he painted this luminous portrait, he had just returned from studying art in Paris, France.
[Gallery label text, 2024]