Artwork Page for Ol' Peckerwood

Details / Information for Ol' Peckerwood

Ol' Peckerwood

1939

Elmer William Brown

(American, 1909–1971)
Culture
America, Ohio, Cleveland
Medium
linocut
Measurements
Image: 18.4 x 25 cm (7 1/4 x 9 13/16 in.); Sheet: 21.8 x 33 cm (8 9/16 x 13 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1939.240
Catalogue raisonné
Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 8
Edition
40
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Although he worked in a wide variety of media, Elmer William Brown is best known for the murals that he created for public spaces as part of the Works Progress Administration during the 1940s.

Description

This composition centers on the White overseer of a chain gang composed of incarcerated Black men. To create the print, Elmer W. Brown drew on his own experiences in the Missouri state-prison system after having been caught riding a freight train illegally. While the men labor in the background, Ol’ Peckerwood—an insulting nickname for the lead guard—stands imposingly in the foreground, his hand poised near his weapon, as shadows from the clouds above darken his form.
A horizontally oriented print in black ink on beige paper depicts a White man in a bucket hat and overalls walking in front of a group of shirtless Black men working with shovels and pickaxes. The White man twists slightly to our left, arms at his sides, gun hanging at his right hip, and right eyebrow raised within the jagged angles of his face. The Black men, three clustered to our right and another two further back on the left, have rounded features and defined muscles.

Ol' Peckerwood

1939

Elmer William Brown

(American, 1909–1971)
America, Ohio, Cleveland

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