The Green Door

1981

Lois Mailou Jones

Associated Names
Lois Mailou Jones

Artist, American, 1905 - 1998

This is a painting of a street scene filled with activity. On top of a hill are various structures, trees, and people. The buildings are predominantly green and yellow, arranged in a staggered manner up the incline. There are doors and windows in bright colors, notably a green door in the center. The color scheme is vibrant, combining earthy tones with green, blue, and red accents. People of different ages are present, engaging in various activities: some carrying items, petting animals, or playing together. Trees and foliage are visible along the sides of the image and at the top.

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

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From an elevated perspective, we look slightly down on a tan tepee and two shed-like structures on sandy ground overlooking a glistening sea in this almost square, loosely painted landscape. In the left third of the composition, the tall, pyramidal tepee has thin, dark brown horizontal stripes that divide the sides facing us into sections with blended bands of sage green, pale blue, pink, and mustard yellow. A window in the side of the tepee opens onto unidentifiable brown and cream-white shapes, perhaps objects on a table. One shed is near the tepee and the other is near the right edge of the canvas. Openings and awnings in both face each other. Two people inside the left-hand shed have brown skin, black hair, and wear pink or blue. Beyond the structures, the sandy ground gives way to grassy dunes painted with visible strokes of emerald and avocado green. A sailboat floats on the sparkling, topaz-blue water, which reaches back to the horizon. In the top fifth of the painting, the sun lights a bank of clouds to cream white and pale peach. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “Lois M. Jones '40.”

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Daniel Malloy, Washington, DC; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1991; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2021

  • Afro-Atlantic Histories, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021-2024 (shown only in Washington), no repro.

Bibliography

2021

  • Pedrosa, Adriano, and Toledo, Tomàs, editors.Afro-Atlantic Histories. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 2021-2022.

Inscriptions

lower right in watercolor: Lois Mailou Jones / Haiti 1981

Wikidata ID

Q64593287

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