<I>Girl in Red Dress</I>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1935
name: label: Created by
content: Laura Wheeler Waring, American, 1887 - 1948
label: Subject of
content: Unidentified Woman or Women
notes: label: Caption
content: Laura Wheeler Waring was inspired to create a record of what she described as "interesting characters of the American Negro in paint." She made this decision after receiving the Harmon Gold Award in 1927, the highest prize granted by the Harmon Foundation to recognize African American achievement in fine arts. In the mid-1920s Waring traveled to France, where she had a solo exhibition featuring 12 portraits of African American women of varied ages and styles.
label: Caption
content: Approximately ten years later, Waring painted the hauntingly beautiful portrait Girl in Red Dress. The adolescent’s provocative dress reveals the influence of Waring’s studies in France as well as the work of leading American artist Robert Henri, who believed that painting should reflect the unvarnished realities of American life.
label: Description
content: This oil painting depicts a young woman in a red off-the-shoulder dress. Wearing long red fingerless gloves, a large black ring, an earring and makeup, she sits with one knee drawn up to her chest. Her clasped hands rest on her raised knee. Although she faces the viewer, her gaze is lowered, her head slightly bent forward. Her dark, wavy hair, parted on the left, hangs to her shoulders. The painting is signed by the artist and has a gallery label affixed to the back.
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
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
label: Movement
content: Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement)
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2013.18
objectType: label: Type
content: oil paintings
label: Type
content: portraits
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Estate of Laura Wheeler Waring
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: oil on museum board
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (unframed): 18 × 14 in. (45.7 × 35.6 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (frame): 23 5/8 × 19 11/16 × 1 3/4 in. (60 × 50 × 4.5 cm)