Photo By Gail

Laura Wheeler Waring’s portrayals of Black women across the social spectrum often transcended class norms and disrupted prevalent stereotypes. For Girl in Pink Dress (ca. 1927), her young sitter is presented as an icon of the Jazz Age, with the sleek, bobbed coiffure and elegant drop-waisted flapper dress – exquisitely detailed, and with nuanced tonal variations – that are emblematic of the period.

The artist’s skillful portraits of Black figures drew praise from an initially skeptical Alain Locke, who acknowledged the modernity of her choice of subject. Waring won first prize in the Harmon Foundation’s 1927 exhibition, solidifying her stature as the foremost, black female portrait painter working at the heart of the new Negro movement.

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City