The Wedding

1948

Jacob Lawrence
American, 1917–2000

“I paint the things I have experienced,” Jacob Lawrence once said. In The Wedding, Lawrence depicted both the solemnity and the joy of a marriage ceremony and the coming together of families. Positioning the figures with their backs to the viewer, Lawrence’s composition invites us to participate in the couple’s major life event. Although the preacher’s face is only partially defined, he appears to look down with great seriousness as the two contemplate their vows. The large, colorful urns overflowing with flowers signify happiness and may also represent the future prosperity of this union.

Lawrence depicted the histories and events of black Americans—whether through individual compositions such as The Wedding that commemorated the everyday activities of his fellow Harlem residents, or through series of paintings that explored subjects ranging from the Great Migration to the story of Harriet Tubman.

Status: On View, Gallery 263
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Jacob Lawrence
Title: The Wedding
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.: 1948
Medium: Egg tempera on hardboard
Inscriptions: 78.7 x 88.9 cm (31 x 35 in.)
Dimensions: 50.8 × 61 cm (20 × 24 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Mary P. Hines in memory of her mother, Frances W. Pick
Reference Number: 1993.258
Copyright: © 2018 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“Art Questions and Answers,” Time 53 (April 11, 1949): 57, ill.
Margaret Breuning, “Carnegie Presents Last and Best Alt American Annual,” Art Digest 24, 2 (Oct. 15, 1949): 7–9.
Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, American Painter (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 75, pl. 46.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth–Century Painting and Sculpture, selected by James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 96, ill.
Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, eds. Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, 2000), ill., 323.
Daniel Schulman, “The Wedding,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 29, 2 (2003): 76–77 (color ills.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), cat. 152.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017), 127.
Kristin Schwain, “Creating History, Establishing a Canon: Jacob Lawrence’s The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis,” in Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American Art, eds. James Romaine and Phoebe Wolfskill (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017), 170.

New York, NY, The Downtown Gallery, The Artists Speaks in Paint, Stone, and Words, Apr. 5–23, 1949, cat. 10.
Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Institute, Painting in the United States, 1949, Oct. 13–Dec. 11, 1949, cat. 51.
New York and other cities, American Federation of Arts, Jacob Lawrence Retrospective, Nov. 1960–1962, cat. 33.
Washington, DC, The Corcoran Gallery, National Conference on the Arts Honors Ten African–American Artists, Mar. 14–Apr. 16, 1980.
Seattle Art Museum, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, July 10–Sept. 7, 1986; Oakland Museum, CA, Sept. 26– Nov. 30, 1986; Atlanta, GA, High Museum of Art, Dec. 16, 1986–Mar. 1, 1987; Washington, DC, Phillips Collection, Apr. 3–June 1, 1987; Dallas Museum of Art, July 19–Sept. 6, 1987; Brooklyn Museum, NY, Oct. 1–Dec. 1, 1987.
Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Fairfield University, CT, Human Conditions: American 20th–Century Paintings & Drawings, Feb. 7–Mar. 7, 1992.
Art Institute of Chicago, Spiritual Expressions: Art for Private Contemplation and Public Celebration, Nov. 22, 1995–Mar. 17, 1996.
Washington, DC, Phillips Collection, Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, May 27–Aug. 19, 2001; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Nov. 8, 2001–Feb. 3, 2002; Detroit Institute of Art, Feb. 24–May 19, 2002; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 16–Sept. 8, 2002; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Oct. 5, 2002–Jan. 5, 2003.
Salem, MA, Peabody Essex Museum, Wedded Bliss: the Marriage of Art and Ceremony, Apr. 36–Sept. 14, 2008.

The Downtown Gallery, New York. Mrs. Franklin Forsythe, Ann Arbor, MI, by 1960; by descent to Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Forsythe, Laguna Beach, CA. Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York, by 1980. Dr. Daniel J. Whitner, Atlanta. Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, lot 346, September 29, 1989; Mr. and Mrs. John W. Payson, Hobe Sound, FL; Midtown Payson Galleries, New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1993.

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