The Lord Is My Shepherd

Media - 1979.5.13 - SAAM-1979.5.13_1 - 80087
Copied Eastman Johnson, The Lord Is My Shepherd, 1863, oil on fiberboard, 16 5⁄8 x 13 1⁄8 in. (42.3 x 33.2 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1979.5.13
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Artwork Details

Title
The Lord Is My Shepherd
Artist
Date
1863
Location
Dimensions
16 5⁄8 x 13 1⁄8 in. (42.3 x 33.2 cm.)
Markings
lower left in oil: E. Johnson back upper left stamped and in pencil: JHA/8205 back center in ink: A/2220 back center right in pencil: (ONo6) frame verso upper right in felt-tipped pen and ink: Cat. No. 62.268/Cultural History
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on fiberboard
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure
  • Figure male
  • African American
  • Recreation — leisure — reading
  • Religion — Christianity
Object Number
1979.5.13
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1979.5.13

Artwork Description

Eastman Johnson painted The Lord Is My Shepherd only months after the Emancipation Proclamation of New Year's Day, 1863. The image of a humble black man reading from his Bible was reassuring to white Americans uncertain of what to expect from the freed slaves. But the simple act of reading was itself a political issue. Emancipation meant that blacks must educate themselves in order to be productive, responsible citizens. In the slaveholding South, teaching a black person to read had been a crime; in the North, the issue was not "May they read?" but "They must read."

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

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