Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917-2000) Spring Plowing, 1942 Tempera and gouache on board 20-1/2 x 29 inches (52.1 x 73.7 cm) Signed and dated upper right: J. Lawrence 42 PROVENANCE: [with] The Downtown Gallery, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Mackinley Helm, New York; Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, December 13-14, 1973, lot 176; Mr. and Mrs. Fred D. Rudin, Atlantic City, New Jersey, acquired from the above; Richard York Gallery, New York, by 1990; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, 1991; Acquired by the present owner from the above. EXHIBITED: The Institute for Modern Art, Boston, Massachusetts, "Paintings and Sculpture by American Negro Artists," January 5-30, 1943, no. 20; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and elsewhere, "Jacob Lawrence: An Exhibition of His Work," May 16, 1974-March 39, 1975 (as The Plowman); Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, Delaware, "American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries," April 11-May 27, 2017; Debra Force Fine Art, New York, "American Modernism and Abstraction," March 4-April 27, 2019 (as The Plowman). LITERATURE: Whitney Museum of American Art, Jacob Lawrence: An Exhibition of His Work, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1974, p. 56, no. 80, illustrated (as The Plowman); Richard York Gallery, An American Gallery: Volume VI, New York, 1990, n.p., no. 41, illustrated; M.R. Severens, Greenville County Museum of Art: The Southern Collection, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1995, pp. 1860-87; C. C. Eldredge et. al., Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950, Athens, Georgia, 2004, pp. 148-49, illustrated; P.T. Nesbett, M. DuBois, Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935-1999), A Catalogue Raisonné, Seattle, Washington, 2000, p. 63, no. P42-04, illustrated. Painted in 1942, Spring Plowing, also known as The Plowman, belongs to a formative moment in Jacob Lawrence's career. His recently completed Migration Series had brought national recognition to his account of African American movement from the rural South to the urban North. During a stay with relatives in Lanexa, Virginia, Lawrence turned to the Southern landscape itself, developing a small group of paintings concerned with rural life and labor. These works bring firsthand observation to subjects that had previously reached him largely through family memories and historical research. The plowing subject gives physical form to the effort required to work the land. Broad, curving furrows dominate the composition, their repeated bands drawing the eye across the hillside. Against this expansive setting, the farmer and his animals form a compact chain of movement and resistance. The landscape becomes an active force, shaping both the composition and our understanding of the labor depicted. Milton W. Brown described Lawrence's Virginia paintings as "moody, dark and nostalgic," a useful distinction from the more crowded urban scenes of the same period (Whitney Museum of American Art, Jacob Lawrence, exhibition catalog, New York, 1974, p. 12). Tempera was central to Lawrence's achievement during these important early years. Its quick-drying character suited his decisive handling of color and sharply defined shapes. Here, the contrast between the angular figures and the rolling patterns of the land gives an ordinary agricultural task the visual force of a modernist composition. The painting also has an unusual history of scholarly examination. The work was included in Lawrence's 1974 Whitney retrospective as The Plowman and was subsequently published as Spring Plowing, no. P42-04, in the 2000 Catalogue Raisonné. Although Lawrence himself did not acknowledge the painting as his work, the Catalogue's independent authentication committee—Peter Nesbett, Michelle DuBois, and Elizabeth Steele—unanimously concluded that it was authentic following extensive investigation of its materials, execution, subject, and history. The remarks published in the Catalogue Raisonné therefore document that difference of opinion alongside the committee's affirmative authentication. This history adds a revealing chapter to a painting that connects Lawrence's celebrated early modernism with his sustained attention to the dignity and demands of work. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

The Institute for Modern Art, Boston, Massachusetts, "Paintings and Sculpture by American Negro Artists," January 5-30, 1943, no. 20; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and elsewhere, "Jacob Lawrence: An Exhibition of His Work," May 16, 1974-March 39, 1975, p. 56, no. 80 (as The Plowman); Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, Delaware, "American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries," April 11-May 27, 2017; Debra Force Fine Art, New York, "American Modernism and Abstraction," March 4-April 27, 2019.

[with] The Downtown Gallery, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Mackinley Helm, New York; Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, December 13-14, 1973, lot 176; Mr. and Mrs. Fred D. Rudin, Atlantic City, New Jersey, acquired from the above; Richard York Gallery, New York, by 1990; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, 1991; Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Condition report available upon request.
Framed Dimensions 28.25 X 36.5 Inches