Jacob Lawrence

American, 1917–2000

Letter from Home, 1947
Egg tempera on hardboard
19¾ by 16 inches

Signed Jacob Lawrence and dated 1947 lower right; inscribed #162/Letter from Home on the reverse

This work expands upon a subject Lawrence first explored a year earlier in a panel from his “War” series, which consists of 14 paintings based on his service as a combat artist in the Coast Guard. Letter From Home depicts a woman alone in a stark domestic interior; she has abandoned her sewing project to read a letter. Here Lawrence has forsaken the flat collage-like style of the works in the “War” series and instead uses perspective and detail to capture the emotion of his subject.