Awaiting His Return

1945

Charles White

Artist, American, 1918 - 1979

Taller de Gráfica Popular

Printer, Mexican, founded 1937

Charles White

Attributed to

Printed with blended but dark black shading on cream-white paper, a stylized person sits with chin in one fist in this vertical lithograph. The person sits at a table across from us with one elbow bent to brace the face and the other arm resting on the table in front. The body, features, and clothing are created with angular, blocky forms. The shoulders and head are angled slightly to our right, and the tall, hexagonal face sits in the right hand, to our left. The eyebrows make a shallow U-shape over oversized, hooded eyes. The angular nose has triangle-shaped nostrils, and the wide mouth is set in a line. The first holding the face pulls that eye and cheek down a bit. Dark hair feathers to each side of the person’s face. She wears a striped garment and sits against a dark wall with a single star framed in a dark outline over her left shoulder, to our right. The artist wrote in graphite under the image, “‘MOTHER’ 4/20 PRINTS” to the left and “CHARLES WHITE ‘45” to the right.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    lithograph in black on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Jacob Kainen

  • Dimensions

    image: 40.1 x 31.3 cm (15 13/16 x 12 5/16 in.)
    sheet: 48.2 x 39.8 cm (19 x 15 11/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2002.98.72

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Gedeon 1981, no. Ea4


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Jacob Kainen, Washington, D.C.; acquired 2002 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Bibliography

1981

  • Gedeon, Lucinda Heyel. Introduction to the Work of Charles W. White with a Catalogue Raisonné. MA thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981, no. Ea4.

Inscriptions

lower left in graphite: "Mother" 4/20 Prints; lower right in graphite: Charles White '45

Wikidata ID

Q76337351

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