Laura Wheeler Waring (American, 1887–1948). <em>Woman with Bouquet</em>, ca. 1940. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Teresa A. Carbone, 2016.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2016.2_PS20.jpg)

Laura Wheeler Waring (American, 1887–1948). Woman with Bouquet, ca. 1940. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Teresa A. Carbone, 2016.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2016.2_PS20.jpg)

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Was Laura Wheeler Waring a Black artist?

Yes, she was. Laura Wheeler Waring was born in Connecticut and attended the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Waring taught for many years in Pennsylvania, and in the late 1920s and early 1930s she exhibited her art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Can you tell me more Laura Wheeler Waring?

Sure! Laura Wheeler Waring was an artist from Hartford Connecticut. She was born in 1887 to an upper-class family. She attended Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1908 and went on to found the art and music departments of the State Normal School in Cheyney, PA.

She had a long teaching career and painted extensively during her lifetime, becoming particularly well-known for her portraits, which were displayed during her lifetime at the Smithsonian Institution and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Was this purchased or given to the museum in 2016? I’m trying to use the signage to determine when the museum got it and how? How can one learn the provenance of a painting?

Generally, our gallery labels will tell you how the acquisition of a work was funded. In this case "Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Teresa A. Carbone" indicates that the museum purchased this work (out of an earmarked fund for art by African American artists) in honor of a recently retired curator of American art.

To learn further provenance information for any work, one would want to look to publications on the work like exhibition catalogues. If the work has not been published extensively, or at all, you would then have to turn to the museum's files.

Unfortunately, I don't have any notes on this works former owners.

Is their any other info related to this painting and its philosophy?

Not much is known about this painting actually but we do know quite a bit about the artist, Laura Wheeler Waring.

She was born in 1887 in Hartford Connecticut to an upper-class family. She graduated from high school and enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1908 at a time when few African Americans were receiving a formal education.

Waring was best known for her portraits and was actually commissioned to paint a series titled "Portraits of Outstanding American Citizens of Negro Origin" by the Harmon Foundation. Her subjects included W.E.B. DuBois, George Washington Carver, and Marian Anderson. This exhibition also travelled to the Brooklyn Museum!

Woman with Bouquet

Laura Wheeler Waring

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, From Colonies to States, 1660–1830

With hand on hip and confident bearing, this woman is self-assured and elegant. She was probably from the Philadelphia area, where the artist Laura Wheeler Waring lived and worked. Like Waring’s other portraits of sophisticated or dignified working-class African Americans, this painting countered the many racial stereotypes that were prevalent at the time. Waring’s work, with its strong color palette and energetic brushwork, flourished during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, a period of great African American artistic and cultural production.

ARTIST Laura Wheeler Waring, American, 1887–1948

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

DATES ca. 1940

DIMENSIONS 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm) framed: 36 x 31 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. (91.4 x 79.4 x 5.7 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed lower left: "LW"; signed and inscribed verso on artist's label: "Laura Wheeler Waring/136 N. 3rd St./Philadelphia, PA."; signed and inscribed verso: "Laura Wheeler Waring/(faded -illegible); signed and inscribed verso, upside down: "Laura W. Waring/756 N. 43rd/Phila. PA."

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2016.2

CREDIT LINE Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Teresa A. Carbone

EXHIBITIONS

American Art

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, From Colonies to States, 1660–1830

CAPTION Laura Wheeler Waring (American, 1887–1948). Woman with Bouquet, ca. 1940. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Teresa A. Carbone, 2016.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2016.2_PS20.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 2016.2_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024

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