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An Old Roadway

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Photography by Dwight Primiano
An Old Roadway
Photography by Dwight Primiano

An Old Roadway

Artist (1825 - 1894)
Dateca. 1880
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions48 × 72 in. (121.9 × 182.9 cm)
Framed: 56 1/2 in. × 80 1/2 in. × 3 in.
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LinePromised Gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Signedl.l.: G. Inness
On View
Not on view
Label TextAn African American woman traveling alone with a walking stick and pack on her shoulder encounters a young boy tending sheep. Where is the woman going? Or perhaps more telling, where has she been? The scene evokes the migration of Blacks from the South after the end of Reconstruction in 1877. It also reminds viewers of slaves fleeing bondage before and during the Civil War along networks such as the Underground Railroad.

Una mujer de raza negra quien viaja sola con un cayado y bulto a sus espaldas se encuentra con un niño que cuida a un rebaño. ¿A dónde va la mujer? O, quizás la pregunta más apremiante sea, ¿de dónde viene? La escena evoca la migración de los negros del sur después del final de la Reconstrucción en 1877. También trae a la memoria a los esclavos que huían la esclavitud por las vías del ferrocarril subterráneo (Underground Railroad) antes y después de la Guerra de Secesión.

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