Artwork Details
- Title
- Mom and Dad
- Artist
- Date
- 1944
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 31 x 25 3⁄8 in. (78.7 x 64.5 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Harmon Foundation
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on paperboard
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Animal — cat
- African American
- Object — art object — painting
- Object — furniture — chair
- Object Number
- 1967.59.1012
Artwork Description
In Mom and Dad the light background emphasizes “Mom Alice’s” dark coloring and direct gaze and may also signal a family history that William H. Johnson hinted at in other details. The calico cat nursing a kitten and the portrait of Henry Johnson as a light-skinned man likely refer to William’s mixed racial heritage (Powell, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson, 1991). Johnson changed his painting style in the late 1930s and began creating self-consciously “primitive” scenes of African American life. When he returned home to Florence, South Carolina, in 1944, this professional change took on a personal dimension as he attempted to reconnect with his family.