Artwork Details
- Title
- Strong Woman and Child
- Artist
- Date
- 1925
- Location
- Dimensions
- 57 1⁄4 x 44 7⁄8 in. (145.4 x 114.0 cm.)
- Markings
- frame back upper left incised: "Frame made for/Yo Kuniyoshi by/CARL SANDELIN 63 E 60 th St NYC" frame back upper left stamped in pink: Merci/Visitane/Dogana Italiana -- NO 5032 (with a head in the center) frame upper right in black grease pencil: 54.501
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on canvas
- Classifications
- Highlights
- Keywords
- Landscape
- Figure group — female and child
- Performing arts — circus
- Object — other — flag
- Object — other — flag
- Object Number
- 1986.6.50
Artwork Description
Kuniyoshi's paintings often encoded his experience as a Japanese immigrant in the United States, where, in the 1920s, anti-Asian discrimination was pervasive and restrictive immigration laws prevented him from becoming a citizen. (His wife, Katherine Schmidt, was disowned by her wealthy family when they married.) He painted Strong Woman and Child while in Paris, where the liberal environment and friendships with other artists, among them Alexander Calder, provided a sense of freedom and emotional support. The strong woman of the title is a circus performer who stands on a stage, French flags entwined at the backdrop. The mother figure, who may be a stand-in for Katherine, affirms her protective relationship with the child, who seems perhaps a symbolic portrayal of the artist himself.
Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014
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