Tableau II

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Tableau II

Artist: Eldzier Cortor (American, 1916 - 2015)

Date: 20th century

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm)

Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of the Eldzier Cortor Trust in memory of Sophia Cortor

Object number: 2012.24.32

Label Text

This painting by twentieth-century American artist Eldzier Cortor frames life from the outside-in. Two women, perhaps mother and daughter, are visible through the open shutters of a window. Above them, a lightbulb dings on in a moment of inspiration. Little domestic vignettes populate the scene: a sleeping cat, a bowl of fruit, house numbers, and a draped shawl.

A master printmaker and painter, Cortor is best known for pictures, like this one, of black women in repose. Born in 1916 in Richmond, Virginia, Cortor’s family moved to Chicago during the Great Migration, where he happened to attend high school with the artist Charles White. Cortor went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and work as a painter for the Works Progress Administration.

(Yinshi Lerman-Tan, 2021)

Not on view

The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.

Artwork

Tableau II

Tableau II