Mailou Jones was awarded a fellowship in 1937 to study painting at the Académie Julian in Paris. There she produced some forty pictures in just nine months, one of which was Cauliflower and Pumpkin. Her skill as a painter is evident, and reflects her recent study of the work of the French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. In this traditional still life arrangement of cauliflower, gourd, potatoes, knife, and drapery, Jones achieves a poetic realism that transcends the mundaneness of her props. With thick painterly strokes she "sculpts" the forms and space, using precise planes of color to suggest the smooth surfaces of the pumpkin and tabletop.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Cauliflower and Pumpkin
Artist:Loïs Mailou Jones (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1905–1998 Washington, D.C.)
Date:1938
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:21 3/8 x 25 1/2 in. (54.3 x 64.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Max Robinson, 1981
Object Number:1981.535
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Lois M. / Jones / Paris '38
the artist, Paris and Washington, D.C. (1938–at least 1979); Max Robinson, Chicago (until 1981; his gift to MMA)
Washington, D. C. Howard University Gallery of Art. "Lois Mailou Jones Retrospective Exhibition: 'Forty Years of Painting,' 1932–1972," March 31–April 21, 1972, no. 5.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Reflective Moments: Lois Mailou Jones Retrospective, 1930–1972," March 11–April 15, 1973, no. 2.
Art Museum, Princeton University. "Fragments of American Life: An Exhibition of Paintings: Romare Bearden, Joseph Delaney, Rex Gorleigh, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Hale Woodruff," January 25–March 28, 1976, unnumbered cat. (p. 44; as "Chou-Fleur et Citrouille," lent by the artist).
Washington, D. C. Phillips Collection. "Lois Mailou Jones: Selected Paintings and Watercolors," October 2–31, 1979, no. 19 (as "Chou-Fleur et Citrouille," lent by the artist).
New York. Hunter College Art Galleries. "Afro-American Artists in Paris: 1919–1939," November 8–December 22, 1989, unnumbered cat.
Boston. Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists. "Afro-American Artists in Paris, 1919–1939," September 16–November 11, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Still Life: 1915–1950," February 1, 1995–January 28, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 1.
Charlotte, N. C. Mint Museum of Art. "Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color," November 14, 2009–February 27, 2010, unnumbered cat. (p. 101).
Lakeland, Fla. Folk Museum of Art. "Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color," July 3–September 26, 2010, unnumbered cat.
Washington, D. C. National Museum of Women in the Arts. "Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color," October 9, 2010–January 9, 2011, unnumbered cat.
Chattanooga, Tenn. Hunter Museum of American Art. "Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color," January 29–April 24, 2011, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism," February 25–July 28, 2024, not in catalogue.
James A. Porter et al. Lois Mailou Jones: Peintures, 1937–1951. Tourcoing, France, 1952, pl. 28.
Ann Schecter. "Lois Mailou Jones Is Not Just an Average Artist." Lowell Sun (March 18, 1973), p. 100.
John Ralph Willis. Fragments of American Life: An Exhibition of Paintings: Romare Bearden, Joseph Delaney, Rex Goreleigh, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Hale Woodruff. Exh. cat., Art Museum, Princeton University. Princeton, 1976, pp. 15, 44, 46, ill.
Juliette H. Bowles. "Lois Mailou Jones, Portrait of an Artist." New Directions: Howard University Magazine 4 (July 1977).
Tritobia Hayes Benjamin. The Life and Art of Loïs Mailou Jones. San Francisco, 1994, p. 30, ill. p. 35 (color), calls it "Chou-fleur et Citrouille, Paris".
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 20–21, no. 1, ill. (color).
David Minthorn. "Depression-Era Exhibit Showcases Black Artists." Herald-News (Passaic, NJ) (February 2, 2003), p. B6.
Zoë Hopkins. "The Internationalism of the Harlem Renaissance." hyperallergic.com. April 7, 2024, ill. (color, installation photo, Exh. New York 2024).
Norman Lewis (American, New York 1909–1979 New York)
1978
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