Jacob Lawrence Painting 'Blind Beggars'

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Jacob Lawrence painting the “Blind Beggars” shows an elderly blind couple walking down the street. It is assumed that they are a married couple. The blind woman is holding on to the blind man who is holding a begging cup in his hand. Children are playing around the couple going about their own business as the couple walks past them. The “Alabama Plow Girl” photographed by Dorothea Lange shows a young child from the bottom only. You can only see the young girl bottom of her dress, along with her legs and feet. Her feet are in dirt and you can see a plow in front of her. The girl has no shoes on, plowing the fields in Alabama. From the photograph, you can tell by her feet and legs that she is a young girl. The young girl being shoeless shows For the rest of her life she walked with a limp. As a preteen, her father abandoned the family. This affected her deeply and it made her feel empathetic to those less unfortunate. The photograph, the “Alabama Plow Girl” was taken during the Great Depression of a young girl working in the cotton fields. Lange’s photographs often reflected people of the less fortunate. Jacob Lawrence grew up in poverty, experienced racism and his father abandoned the family at a very young age. Jacob Lawrence paintings often reflected on Harlem social life as well as poverty, brothels and pool halls in Harlem where he grew up. The “Blind Beggars” reflected on the social issues of poverty of this elderly blind couple. (Grant) In this tempera painting, he used matte opaque water based paints. Tempura paint is a fast drying, opaque matte paint which is inexpensive. Along with his use of tempura paints, he used paper-covered boards to create this beautiful painting. In addition, his use of vibrant colors is what brings this painting alive. In contrast, the “Alabama Plow Girl” is not a painting but an actual photograph taken by Lange. What is interesting is that the photograph is not in full color, but in black in white in contrast to the “Blind Beggars” painting, which has vibrant colors. Both Lange and Lawrence art works reflect on the theme of poverty and unfortunate circumstances of

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