Laura Wheeler Waring
Hello February! We start our Black History Month celebrations with this amazing portrait by Laura Wheeler Waring, most renowned for her realistic portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and well-known African American portraiture she made during the Harlem Renaissance.
Jessie Redmon Fauset, depicted in the portrait, achieved numerous remarkable milestones. She made history by becoming the first African American woman to gain acceptance into the Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Cornell University, where she graduated with honors in 1905. In 1919, she embarked on a new journey when she relocated to New York City to take on the role of literary editor for The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), a civil rights organization. In this capacity, she collaborated closely with the renowned W. E. B. Du Bois and played a pivotal role in ushering in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Notably, Langston Hughes acknowledged her as one of the key figures who "midwife the birth of New Negro literature."
In addition to her editorial work, Fauset was a talented author with four novels to her name, including Plum Bun (1929). Laura Wheeler Waring crafted her portrait for the Harmon Foundation's exhibition, Portraits of Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin. This exhibition, which toured the nation during the 1940s and 1950s, served as a powerful visual response to the prevailing racism of the time.
P.S. We have reached February, and if you still don't have our DailyArt 2024 Calendar by now, it is time to change that horrid situation! Check out our calendars, which are on -40% sale! :)
P.P.S. If you haven't heard about the Harlem Renaissance, here's all you need to know about this important movement of American art!