John Steuart Curry
American, 1897-1946
John Brown
INV-9953
John Steuart Curry
American, 1897-19461939
John Brown
John Steuart Curry American, 1897-1946 →lithographprint
Date
1939
Medium
Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Plate: 37.9 × 27.6 cm (14 15/16 × 10 7/8 in.); Sheet: 46.7 × 33.7 cm (18 7/16 × 13 5/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Bryan S. Reid, Jr.
Based on The Tragic Prelude, Curry’s mural for the rotunda of the Kansas State Capitol, this lithograph portrays the abolitionist martyr John Brown, best remembered for his failed attempt to incite a slave uprising by raiding a military arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. In Curry’s image Brown’s arms are outstretched, and he towers above a crouched African American to his left. Curry modeled Brown’s head on Michelangelo Buonarotti’s sculpture of Moses, linking Brown’s abolitionist zeal to religious fervor. In the distance, a tornado and wildfires foreshadow the American Civil War.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
