Caption: West Chester Court House, by Horace Pippin, 1940.
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Bequest of David J. Grossman in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Grossman and Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Speiser
Caption: Dog Fight Over the Trenches, by Horace Pippin, 1935. Pippin wrote about the front-line trenches, "I will say this much, I say no man can do it again. He may have the will but his body cannot stand it. I could tell a new man every time I seen him, for he would duck every time a shell came over. He would be ducking all day long until he would get used to it." PMA
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Caption: During the First World War, Horace Pippin lost the use of his right arm when he was shot while fighting in the 369th Regiment, a famous African American Infantry division nicknamed the Harlem Hell Fighters. Once home in West Chester, Pippin taught himself to paint, in part to manage the trauma he continued to experience from the war.
Courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Given by Robert Carlen
Caption: Holy Mountain, III, by Horace Pippin, 1945. Originally named, The Knowledge of God. Pippin wrote that the "little crosses tell us of them in the first world war." The figures hanging from the trees are lynchings. "You will see what they did and are still doing in the South."
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
Caption: Shell Holes and Observation Balloon, Champagne Sector, by Horace Pippin, c.1931. Pippin once said, "Pictures just come to my mind and then I tell my heart to go ahead."
The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Mrs. John Merryman, Jr. BMA1967.48
Caption: The Barracks, by Horace Pippin, 1945. Horace Pippin wrote of his war time in France, "I didn't know if they had sun there or not. I have not seen the sun in more than a month."
The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
Caption: John Brown Going to His Hanging, by Horace Pippin, 1942. Pippin's mother Christine told of how her mother had been a slave in Virginia and had watched the hanging of the antislavery leader John Brown. Horace's grandmother appears in the painting, in the lower right hand corner. John Brown is shown tied with rope and sitting on his own coffin
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, John Lambert Fund
Caption: Sketch from Horace Pippins War Diary. "It were near day, a five stars were shining. But we kept on, and on."
Drawings in World War I notebook. Horace Pippin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Caption: Sketch from Horace Pippins War Diary. "as he got over the strip of seder he open up on the Germans plain and all at once, he were a fair and came down, to rise no more."
Drawings in World War I notebook. Horace Pippin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Caption: Sketch from Horace Pippins War Diary. An excerpt from Pippin's diary reads, "the gas were so strong and all we could do were wait."
Drawings in World War I notebook. Horace Pippin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Caption: Sketch from Horace Pippins War Diary. The excerpt accompanying this sketch from Pippin's diary reads, "even at night we could not travel with out being seen by the skyline."
Drawings in World War I notebook. Horace Pippin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Caption: Sketch from Horace Pippins War Diary. The excerpt accompanying this sketch reads, "The shells were Birsteing fast, as we made it to the hills."
Drawings in World War I notebook, by Horace Pippin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Caption: Sketch from Horace Pippins War Diary. The excerpt accompanying this sketch reads, "This is one of those places that the Germans gave us plenty of gas."
Drawings in World War I notebook. Horace Pippin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.