Victorian Interior

Artist Information

Horace Pippin is an American folk painter born in 1888 from Pennsylvania. He is known for his depictions of African American life and the horrors of war. His most frequently used theme centered on the African American experience, as seen in his series entitled Cabin in the Cotton (mid-1930s) and his paintings of episodes in the lives of the antislavery leaders John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. After the art world discovered Pippin in 1937, these pictures in particular brought him wide acclaim as the greatest black painter of his time. He enjoyed the enthusiastic support of art collectors Christian Brinton, Albert C. Barnes, and Edith Halpert, owner of the New York Gallery in New York City. His work was featured in the landmark exhibition “Masters of Popular Painting,” held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1938. Pippin also executed portraits and biblical subjects. His early works are characterized by their heavy impasto and restricted use of color. His later works are more precisely painted in a bolder palette.