Horace Pippin (American, 1888–1946) Lady of the Lake, 1936 Oil on canvas; 20 1/2 x 36 in.(52.1 x 91.4 cm)

Horace Pippin was a self-taught artist who established a flourishing career in the 1930s and ’40s, becoming one of the most widely recognized African-American artists in the United States. Lisa M. Messinger, associate curator in the Department of 19th-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art recently spoke with Met News editor Jennette Mullaney about Pippin’s remarkable painting, Lady of the Lake.

“[Pippin] does have a very naive way of creating images that are not necessarily in scale. The woman that he portrays here is so huge you can’t quite imagine her fitting through the doorway of the cabin. And the little details—the canoe that he puts in and the individual blades of grass—are very painstakingly done. But I think that’s not unusual for artists who are not academically trained. It’s the details of life that are really what’s important to them and so that’s what they put into their art.

… This composition is simple but very direct and brings you in with its color and detail and the fancifulness of some of the images. The subject is unique in Pippin’s art, and as with artists who are not all that well-documented, who didn’t leave large archives, there’s no way of knowing exactly what he was thinking about or what his sources were. … It’s just part-reality, part-imagination.” READ MORE