Old King Cotton
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Old King Cotton
Maker
Horace Pippin
(b. 1888, West Chester, Pennsylvania – d. 1946, West Chester, Pennsylvania)
Date1944
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions16 in. x 27 1/8 in. (40.6 cm x 68.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Jaffe, parents of Judith Jaffe Silber (Class of 1957)
Object number1956.27
Status
On viewRightsCopyright is retained in accordance with U.S. Copyright laws
Photo creditDavis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
More InformationPippin was wounded seriously in World War I, having served in the 369th Infantry—the “Harlem Hellfighters”—a heroic African-American volunteer regiment. Having shown aptitude for drawing from childhood, he taught himself to paint; hampered by his injury, his painstaking first pictures captured the experience of war. Through them he developed a distinctive style, and went on to a wide range of subjects, most rooted in African-American experience and often based on memory. Pippin’s source for Old King Cotton remains obscure, but the compositional frontality and balance of the picture are characteristic, as is the scene’s depiction of disparity: two African-American farm workers pick and spin cotton as a white woman sits idly by, artfully dressed in the fruit of their labors. Pippin’s use of pattern creates nuanced repetition to animate the scene. The puffy forms in the woman’s dress repeat in the cotton and the clouds, and he attends meticulously to detail, articulating single petals on flowers to gently beautiful effect.