<I>Haitian Street Scene</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1938
name: label: Created by
content: Aaron Douglas, American, 1899 - 1979
notes: label: Caption
content: In 1938 Aaron Douglas visited the island of Haiti while traveling on a Rosenwald Foundation fellowship. During his sojourn, he created a series of paintings that were exhibited in Port-au-Prince as well as the ACA Galleries in New York (1939). Douglas was well regarded for his unique modernist style that blended elements from art deco, African art, and Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, for his Haitian series, he chose to paint in a post-impressionist vein.
label: Caption
content: Although Harlem Renaissance luminary Alain Locke was disappointed in the work’s conventional style and felt it gave "little distinctively new or forceful" to the field, Douglas’s decision to paint scenes from Haiti reflected an important step for black artists interested in capturing their experiences in various parts of the African diaspora.
label: Description
content: An oil on canvas painting by Aaron Douglas depicting a street scene in Haiti. In the foreground, three (3) women are depicted, all traveling from right to left. The two women at proper right are walking, and the third woman at center is traveling on a donkey or burro. The woman on the donkey is wearing a light blue dress and cream colored hat, and is sitting on top of a cloth or a sack. Both of the women traveling on foot are wearing dresses, with brightly colored headscarves topped with baskets balanced on their heads. At proper left, a man is emerging from an alley, wearing a light blue suit with cream colored hat. Behind the figures are colorful buildings bathed in dappled sunlight, a glimpse of colorful blue sky and puffy clouds visible in the background. At proper left there is a large building painted yellow with colorful trim around the windows, at center a garage with teal blue doors, and at proper right a stone wall with a large pine tree with gracefully drooping branches behind. The painting is signed at the lower-right corner [A. Douglas].
place: label: Place made
content: Haiti, Caribbean, Latin America, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: African diaspora
label: Topic
content: Art
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, Gift of the Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2015.267
objectType: label: Type
content: paintings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Aaron Douglas Foundation//Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS)
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: oil on canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (Framed): 25 5/8 × 27 5/8 × 4 1/2 in. (65.1 × 70.2 × 11.4 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (Unframed): 18 × 20 × 1 in. (45.7 × 50.8 × 2.5 cm)