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Oak Bluffs

A work made of graphite, with erasing on cream wove paper.
© Lilian Thomas Burwell.

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  • A work made of graphite, with erasing on cream wove paper.

Date:

c. 1940

Artist:

Hilda Wilkinson Brown
American, 1894-1981

About this artwork

Hilda Wilkinson Brown, an artist and art educator, grew up and spent her entire life in Washington, D.C. She spent her summers at her family’s retreat near the Oak Bluffs area of Martha’s Vineyard. At the time, the beach depicted here was reserved for African Americans and known in code as “the inkwell.” As Brown’s niece, the artist Lillian Thomas Burwell, noted, this is an especially poignant image, “in a family sense, of Negro exclusion and reconciliation of the times.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Hilda Wilkinson Brown

Title

Oak Bluffs

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1935–1945

Medium

Graphite, with erasing on cream wove paper

Dimensions

40.7 × 28 cm (16 1/16 × 11 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Hartman

Reference Number

1997.311

Copyright

© Lilian Thomas Burwell.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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