Study for the figure of John Brown in the -Tragic Prelude- mural for the Kansas Statehouse by John Steuart Curry

Study for the figure of John Brown in the -Tragic Prelude- mural for the Kansas Statehouse 1940

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drawing, pencil

portrait

drawing

charcoal drawing

figuration

pencil drawing

underpainting

pencil

united-states

portrait drawing

academic-art

realism

Dimensions: 22 3/8 x 17 3/8 in. (56.83 x 44.13 cm) (sight)32 3/16 x 25 13/16 in. (81.76 x 65.56 cm) (outer frame)

John Steuart Curry made this study for the figure of John Brown with sanguine on paper. I’m thinking about Curry, alone in his studio, sketching away, trying to capture something of the radical abolitionist, John Brown. It’s fascinating to see the artist working through ideas. The figure is all energy, muscles straining, arms outstretched. The red chalk feels urgent, like the artist is trying to get the idea down quickly before it disappears. You can see the ghost of other lines, adjustments made as Curry searches for the right pose. The way he’s captured the tension in the body—it’s like a coiled spring. I wonder what Curry was thinking about when he made this, what emotions he was trying to convey? There’s a raw power here, but also a vulnerability in the nakedness of the figure. He is in dialogue with a long line of artists, from Michelangelo to Thomas Hart Benton, all grappling with the human form, trying to infuse it with meaning. This study feels like a moment of intense concentration, a spark of creativity in the ongoing conversation of art.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart over 1 year ago

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The red conté study of John Brown relates to the Kansas Statehouse murals that Curry worked on from 1937 to 1942. This particular sheet is related to an early stage of the mural from late 1938 to early 1939 in which Brown appeared beardless. Curry knew that Brown didn't wear a beard while in Kansas, but grew it to disguise himself when he moved east after the Pottawatomie Massacre in May of 1856. Curry later decided to model Brown on Michelangelo's dramatic rendition of Moses for the tomb of Pope Julius II. Brown appears bearded in the lithograph of 1939 (P. 91.37.2) as well as in the John Brown painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curry considered the Kansas Statehouse murals his best work, but the legislature refused to allow him to finish the cycle in the way he planned and the project became mired in controversy. In 1992 the Kansas legislature issued an official apology for its treatment of the artist and bought a large group of drawings related to the murals. Other studies for this project reside in the John Steuart Curry Papers at the Archives of American Art and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.