Study for Anglo-America (Panel 13) for The Epic of American Civilization

José Clemente Orozco, Mexican, 1883 - 1949

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about 1930-1934

Graphite on cream paper

Overall: 18 1/4 × 20 3/4 in. (46.4 × 52.7 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through gifts from Kirsten and Peter Bedford, Class of 1989P; Jane and Raphael Bernstein; Walter Burke, Class of 1944; Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Lombard, Class of 1953; Nathan Pearson, Class of 1932; David V. Picker, Class of 1953; Rodman C. Rockefeller, Class of 1954; Kenneth Roman Jr., Class of 1952 and Adolph Weil Jr., Class of 1935

D.988.52.174

Geography

Place Made: Mexico, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Drawing

Research Area

Drawing

Not on view

Inscriptions

Inscribed, in graphite, lower right: 235; inscribed, in graphite, upper center: center, 8'7"; inscribed, in black ink, on reverse, lower left: 17@DC; inscribed, in graphite, lower right: 61.1780.17

Label

José Clemente Orozco made hundreds of preparatory sketches for his early 1930s mural, The Epic of American Civilization, located in Dartmouth’s Baker Library. In this study, the face of an ambiguous “Founding Father” is the same size as the schoolhouse in the background. They both loom over the teacher and students. In the final mural, this figure disappears into the schoolteacher herself, whose face resembles George Washington’s. In both the mural and this study, this historical figure highlights how US education promotes nationalism by not fully reckoning with the nation’s entangled, complicated, and often violent history.

Comparative illustration: José Clemente Orozco, The Epic of American Civilization: Anglo-America (Panel 13), fresco, 120 x 103 in. (304.8 x 261.6 cm). Commissioned by the Trustees of Dartmouth College; P.934.13.15


From the 2022 exhibition Historical Imaginary, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art




Course History

SPAN 7, Transforming Public Space: Mural Art in Mexico and the US, Douglas Moody, Winter 2013

ARTH 16, LACS 48, Mexican Muralism, Mary Coffey, Spring 2012

ARTH 72, Mexican Muralism, Mary Coffey, Spring 2015

SPAN 7.05, Transforming Public Space: Mural Art in Mexico and the United States, Douglas Moody, Winter 2019

ARTH 40.04, LACS 30.09, Mexicanidad: Constructing and Dismantling Mexican National Identity, Mary Coffey, Winter 2019

Film Studies 42.23, Travelers and Tourists, Heidi Denzel, Spring 2023

History 63.02, Reading Artifacts: The Material Culture of Science, Whitney Barlow Robles, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

Historical Imaginary, Luise and Morton Kaish Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 31-August 16, 2023.

Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California, March 9-May 19, 2002; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 8-December 15, 2002; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico, January 25-April 13, 2003.

Publication History

Renato Gonzalez Mello and Diane Miliotes, Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College (Copublished by W.W. Norton and Company), 2002, p. 174, fig. 217, listed p. 296.

Provenance

Artist; by descent to the Orozco Family, about 1949; purchased by the present collection, 1988.

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