Emancipation Proclamation

1864 or after

A.A. Lamb

Artist, American, active 1864 or after

A.A. Lamb

Attributed to

A woman driving a horse-drawn chariot, an eagle, Abraham Lincoln and soldiers on horseback, and a gathering of countless people gather in front of a columned, domed, white marble building in this horizontal painting. The woman, riders, and soldiers, who wear blue uniforms, to the right have pale skin. About half the people in the crowd to the left have grayish-brown-colored skin, and soldiers wearing gray to the left have pale skin. At the center of the composition, the woman wears a flowing white gown and gold headpiece as she drives a red and gold chariot pulled by two white horses. The chariot bears the word “EMANCIPATION” in red letters across its front. She holds the reins with one extended hand and holds a long, gold trumpet up high with her other hand. A brown eagle flies just overhead. To our right, Abraham Lincoln wears a black suit and sits astride a chestnut-brown horse. Lincoln holds out a scroll with one word legible: “PROCLAMATION.” A man on horseback next to Lincoln has a black handlebar mustache and wears a navy-blue uniform with brass buttons. He holds a United States flag, with the words “LIBERTY TO ALL” tucked among the stars in the blue field. To the right of Lincoln, soldiers in blue uniforms on horseback line up in formation. The frontmost horses trample a torn flag with one white and two red stripes, and a blue field with ten stars. A whip, neck shackles, and a weighted chain lie on the ground nearby. In the crowd representing enslaved people, some hold up their chained hands, kneel, or pray. The soldiers wearing gray also line up, rifle barrels creating a vertical forest of bayonets. Pink-tinged dust rises between the crowd and the US Capitol, which is outlined against a patch of clear, pale-blue sky. Clouds thicken to the left and are streaked with purple, and, to the right, streaks suggest incoming rain. The artist signed the painting as if he had written his name, “A.A. Lamb,” on a rock near the lower right corner.

Media Options

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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Recorded as from Pennsylvania. Probably (Avis and Rockwell Gardner, Stamford, Connecticut),[1] by whom sold in 1949 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1955.
[1] A dealer's note attached to an old snapshot of the painting (in NGA curatorial files) is annotated "Gardiner 6/26/49." Avis and Rockwell Gardiner is the only dealership by this name listed in Antiques issues of this period.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1954

  • American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part I, National Gallery of Art, 1954, no. 110.

1962

  • Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1962-1989 (temporarily returned to NGA for in-house exhibition in honor of the inauguration, December 1980 - March 1981).

1989

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Walter Curley, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 1989-1994.

1993

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Madeleine Albright, Representative of the U.S. to the United Nations, office at the U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1993-1997.

1997

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Madeleine Albright, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1997-2001.

2001

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Ann Veneman, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 2001-2005.

2005

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Mike Nicholson, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C., 2005-2007.

2007

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary James Peake, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C., 2007-2008.

Bibliography

1954

  • Barker, Virgil. "Colloquial History Painting." Art in America 42 (May 1954): 124.

1964

  • American Heritage 15 (April 1964): cover (color).

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 78, repro.

1975

  • Keyes, Donald D. and Lisa Taft. "David G. Blythe's Civil War Paintings." Antiques 108 (November 1975): 996, fig. 8.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 192, repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 224, repro.

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 241-244, repro. 243.

Inscriptions

lower right, on rock: A.A. Lamb.; formerly on reverse (photograph in object file [1955.11.10] in NGA curatorial records): EXHIBI[T] / [A]ND MEC / []

Wikidata ID

Q20188647


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