Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Delaney, Joseph |
Title |
Sunday School Lesson |
Medium |
Sepia tone with gouache, pen, and ink on paper |
Date |
circa 1942 |
Description |
Joseph Delaney (Knoxville 1904-1991 Knoxville) Sunday School Lesson, circa 1942 Sepia tone with gouache, pen, and ink on paper 14 x 15 ¼ inches Knoxville Museum of Art, 2020 purchase with funds provided by KMA Collectors Circle After leaving Knoxville as a young adult, Joseph Delaney eventually settled in New York City where he became a tireless and prolific painter of Manhattan's urban scene. Over the span of his 60-year career, Joseph displayed a remarkable ability to convey a vibrant modern world in transition while representing an unvarnished record of his energetic painterly process. He returned to Knoxville to visit his family over the years and eventually moved back to his hometown in 1986. Sunday School Lesson is one of only a handful of narrative watercolors in which Delaney appears to depict moments from his childhood, circa 1910. These watercolors were produced in the early 1940s, years after he had settled in New York City, and may be related to an unpublished biographical sketch Delaney penned in 1952 as a tribute to his father, The Rev. John Samuel Delaney, who served as a circuit preacher in East Tennessee and Western Virginia between 1905 and 1915. In this scene, a group of boys, two of whom perhaps represent Delaney and his older brother Beauford, are scolded by a stern church matron. The drawing was included in the KMA's 2018 exhibition, Joseph Delaney: On the Move. |
Catalog Number |
2020.03.01 |
Search Terms |
Paper Gouaches Ink Paintings School discipline Schools Women Human body |
Credit line |
purchase with funds provided by KMA Collectors Circle |