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A young fair skinned woman leans out of a horse and cart toward a dark-skinned boy who’s holding a note.

The boy looks up to the woman in the cart, holding up the note in his right hand. He wears a white shirt torn at the elbows, suspenders and jeans in lower left. The woman, holding the reigns, wears simple white print dress with blue bonnet, faces us as she looks toward the boy. A dark-skinned lady and child behind a fence observe the interaction. The back of a brown horse, rigged up to the cart, stands on the right. A modest house behind spring trees is in the background, the scene is lit by sunlight with a blue sky.

Gallery Text

An accomplished genre painter, Henry traveled across the American South in the 1880s in search of new subjects for his work. He was especially drawn to scenes involving black men, women, and children. His visit came at a moment of intense racial conflict. White legislators were passing the Jim Crow laws that gave rise to segregation, while hundreds of black people were murdered each year in a growing epidemic of lynchings.

Henry, who specialized in sentimental depictions of rural life, gives little hint of these realities. This painting of a black boy alongside the carriage of a white woman presents several mysteries. What is the relationship between these two figures? What does the letter in the boy’s hand contain, and who is its recipient? And who are the two onlookers on the far side of the fence?

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2003.279
People
Edward Lamson Henry, American (Charleston, SC 1841 - 1919 Ellenville, NY)
Title
The Message
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1893
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/50581

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on board
Technique
3.5 x 4.5 Polaroid print
Dimensions
23.5 x 30.5 cm (9 1/4 x 12 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r. E. L. Henry 93

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Gift of the artist to Beers Brothers, framers; gift of one of the brothers to his daughter; her gift to William Beers Crowell, her son; his gift to Gilbert Gabriel; his sale to Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth, New York; private collection; Alexander Gallery, New York; their sale to Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., 1999; his gift to Fogg Art Museum, 2003.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Theodore E. Stebbins Jr.
Accession Year
2003
Object Number
2003.279
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Elizabeth McCausland, "The Life and Work of Edward Henry Lamson N.A., 1841-1919", New York State Museum Bulletin, University of the State of New York (Albany, NY, September 1945), no. 339, No. A-258, p. 292
  • Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc., The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth, exh. cat. (New York, 1970), p. 31, no. 46
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 140, cat. 104, ill.
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), p. 35
  • Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Ivan Gaskell, Sara Schechner, and Sarah Anne Carter, Tangible Things: Making History through Objects, Oxford University Press (NY) (New York, 2015), pp. 172-173, 177 repr. p. 173 as fig. 137

Exhibition History

  • Harvard Collects American Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/09/2003 - 02/22/2004
  • Tangible Things, The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Cambridge, 01/24/2011 - 05/29/2011
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 03/20/2023

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu