<I>Breonna Taylor</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2020
name: label: Created by
content: Amy Sherald, American, born 1973
label: Subject of
content: Breonna Taylor, American, 1993 - 2020
notes: label: Caption
content: I don’t think I thought about the viewer so much as I thought about her family when I was making this portrait . . . but when you’re speaking about violence against women and police brutality, she’s become a face for that movement. — Amy Sherald
label: Caption
content: Amy Sherald is best known for her portraits of African Americans, notable for her use of grayscale to paint skin tones as a way of challenging the concept of color as race, including in her noted portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
label: Caption
content: In 2020, after police shot and killed Breonna Taylor in a botched raid, Vanity Fair magazine commissioned Sherald to paint a portrait of Taylor for the September issue, guest-edited by author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Before what would become her first posthumous portrait, Sherald spent time speaking with Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and learned of Taylor’s interest in fashion. As a result, Sherald commissioned a Black female designer to create the dress for the portrait. Sherald also placed an engagement ring on Taylor’s finger to represent the love between Taylor and her partner, Kenneth Walker, who was with her at the time of her killing. Although Taylor’s untimely death prevented him from proposing, Sherald incorporated the ring to give him solace and to suggest a brighter future that art could invoke.
label: Caption
content: Sherald wanted the portrait to remain in the public sphere, saying, “I felt like it should live out in the world.” It is now co-owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, Taylor’s hometown.
label: Description
content: Oil on linen portrait of Breonna Taylor. Taylor appears standing against a light blue-grey background, wearing a flowing blue dress. Her proper right hand rest on her hip, her left hand at her side. A delicate necklace with gold cross pendant is around her neck and an engagement ring is on her left hand. She gazes directly at the viewer.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Activism
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Police brutality
label: Topic
content: Race relations
label: Topic
content: U.S. History, 2001-
label: Topic
content: Violence
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, purchase made possible by a gift from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg/The Hearthland Foundation and the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, purchase made possible by a gift from the Ford Foundation.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2021.117
objectType: label: Type
content: oil paintings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Amy Sherald
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: oil on linen (material)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 in. (137.2 × 109.2 × 6.4 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (frame): 56 7/8 × 46 1/4 × 3 3/8 in. (144.5 × 117.5 × 8.6 cm)