Harmonizing

Horace Pippin was a self-taught African American artist from West Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1917, at the age of twenty-nine, Pippin enlisted in the army, served in a black regiment, and was wounded in his right hand by a German sniper; he received the French Croix de Guerre and a Purple Heart retroactively in 1945. Once back in civilian life, he began making art, working primarily in the ground floor of his West Chester home at night, under a single lightbulb. Because of his war injury, Pippin painted by holding his right wrist with his left hand to control his brush.

The artist painted a major series on the life of the abolitionist John Brown, based, in part, on his mother's account of having witnessed Brown's trial and subsequent hanging. Pippin also painted works relating to his military service, and everyday subjects depicting the daily lives of the residents of West Chester, such as is seen in the present work. The flat, vividly colored painting of a quartet of men singing on a street corner-one of which is said to be Pippin's stepson-is a carefully composed work, with multiple vertical and horizontal elements that set off the men in its center. It is both unconventional and natural, coming directly from the artist's personal, small-town experience; he once said, "Pictures just come to my mind, and then I tell my heart to go ahead."

"Discovered" by the art establishment in the 1930s, Pippin was championed by art collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes, among others. This work was purchased the year it was painted by Enid Bissett, one of the inventors of the Maidenform bra, who with her husband left twenty-four important paintings and drawings to the AMAM collection, including Picasso's Chair and Owl and Modigliani's Nude with Coral Necklace.