This oil painting depicts a cluster of violets against a light gray surface and background. The violets are done is deep navy blues and purples, the blossoms lying in a jumbled heap amidst strands of greenery and a few green leaves. The pile of flowers lies on an off-white surface that gradually fades to grey shadows at the rightmost edge of the painting.
Born in Oakland, California, in 1876, Pauline Powell Burns’s story is steeped in American history. The granddaughter of a slave from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Pauline would go on to become the first African American to exhibit artwork in the state of California. In 1890 she exhibited her paintings at the Mechanics Institute Fair in San Francisco. Burns’s work is extremely scarce, not only because of the time in which she lived but also because she lived a relatively short life, dying in 1912. The largest known collection of her paintings is at the Oakland Museum of California.
As you probably remember, March is Women's History Month. : ) If you would like to know more, please check our Women Artists Notebook here. : )
P.S. Read here about another exquisite African American female artist, Edmonia Lewis! <3