Sister Gertrude Morgan fashioned paper fans like this one for people to use during prayer meetings at her Everlasting Gospel Mission. During her services, Morgan sang, played guitar or tambourine, and encouraged a call-and-response singing style among attendees. On one side of this fan, Morgan painted a scene of New Jerusalem, a symbolic, heavenly city for the devout, described in the Book of Revelation. On the front-facing side, Morgan depicted herself in nurse’s clothing, conveying her self-chosen role as a spiritual healer of the soul.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)
- Title
-
Fan
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1970
- Location
- Dimensions
- 9 3⁄4 × 8 1⁄2 in. (24.8 × 21.6 cm) irregular
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
- Mediums Description
- paint and ink on card
- Classifications
- Highlights
- Keywords
-
- Figure group
- African-American
- Landscape
- Architecture
- Religion – angel
- Figure female – full length
- Object – written matter – book
- African American
- Object Number
-
2016.38.43R-V
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
