The Lord Is My Shepherd
1863
- Medium
- oil on fiberboard
- Dimensions
- 42.3 × 33.2 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-134187
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 producti…
Provenance
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan
Registry history
- 1863 — Recorded in the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum
Registered on Collect24
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