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Battle of Lake Erie

Artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff (American,1900-1980)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1942

MediumTempera on masonite

DimensionsOverall: 11 1/4 x 11 in. (28.6 x 27.9 cm)

InscribedSigned on lower left: H. WOODRUFF; Inscribed on reverse: ; Battle of Lake Erie; H. W.

Credit LineGift of Mr. A. Ailon

Object number83.593

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 221

DescriptionThis is tempera on masonite panel painting. The foreground displays a very foreshortened scene of seven people in a boat are rowing away from a large ship. The ship mast is broken. On the rowboat, a red banner displays most of the phrase, "Don't give up the ship". The figures gaze in dismay and horror at some unknown spectacle off to their right. Their eyes are deeply shadowed with dark sockets, as if their faces were modeled from clay. This depicts a scene from the War of 1812.

Label TextHale Woodruff American, 1900–1980 clockwise from lower left: The Death of Crispus Attucks, ca. 1942 Tempera on board Battle of Lake Erie, ca. 1942 Tempera on board Negroes with Jackson at New Orleans, ca. 1942 Tempera on board Sergeant Carney and the Death of General Shaw, ca. 1942 Tempera on board Plans in 1942 for a new building for the municipal Register of Deeds in Washington, D.C., included a program of murals honoring the heroism of African Americans throughout U.S. history. Hale Woodruff, an art teacher at historically black Atlanta University, submitted proposals for this prestigious commission, including these four panels. Woodruff had studied mural painting under Mexican modernist Diego Rivera. Although he was not successful in this competition, his works decorate many other public buildings and demonstrate the U.S. government’s active sponsorship of African American artists. Gifts of Mr. A. Ailon 82.95, 83.593–595, respectively ProvenanceGift of Mr. A. Ailon to The Chrysler Museum, 1983. Exhibition History"Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College," High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, June 2 – September 2, 2012; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 23 – June 16, 2013; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, July 20 – Octoboer 13, 2013.Published ReferencesBrady Dyer, "A Great American Artist is Acknowledged," _The Chrysler_ (January/February 2004): 4. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 182-183, no. 113. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Stephanie Mayer Heydt, _Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College_ (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2012), 42-43.