These prints are based on forty-one paintings from a series also entitled "Toussaint L'Ouverture", which was completed in 1938 and is now in the Aaron Douglas Collection of the Amistad Research Center, New Orleans. The captions Lawrence provided for the paintings at the time of their execution accompany each of the following entries.

Toussaint L 'Ouverture was a leader in the Haitian revolution. Born a slave, he rose to become commander in chief of the revolutionary army. In 1800 he coordinated the effort to draw up Haiti's first democratic constitution. However, in 1802, before the Republic was firmly established, Toussaint was arrested by Napoleon Bonaparte's troops and sent to Paris, where he was imprisoned. He died in prison the following year. In 1804 Haiti became the first black Western republic.

Lawrence's work has always been dominated by his concern for social issues and historical events, particularly as they affect black Americans. "The Capture," which earned him a prize in the "Artists for Victory" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in 1942, demonstrates this concern.

Lawrence's work is show in major museums and collections nationally and internationally including the Whitney Museum of American Art - New York
The Phillips Collection, Washington DC,  the Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC,  the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit MI.

The Capture
Date: 1987
 28" x 18.5"
silk screen
artist's signature and date signed in
pencil lower left
Edition number:  pp9/18 signed in pencil lower right

price on request
202-783-2963

 

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