Object Details
Artist
Bill Traylor, born near Pleasant Hill, AL ca. 1853-died Montgomery, AL 1949
Exhibition Label
Bill Traylor began drawing his memories sometime around 1939, when he was about eighty-six. After decades of farm labor, the aged artist spent his days in the city, observing and drawing in the Black business district of Montgomery. He took stock of the world around him, first in pencil, later in water-based paint, learning to organize his pictures as visual texts—telling stories and keeping a record of all he had experienced.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Copyright
© 1994, Bill Traylor Family Trust
Date
December 1939
Object number
2016.38.90
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Drawing
Folk Art
Medium
opaque watercolor and pencil on paperboard
Dimensions
sheet and image: 15 × 14 in. (38.1 × 35.6 cm)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Graphic Arts
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Animal\mule
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_2016.38.90