Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948)

In continuing our awareness to October being National Arts and Humanities Month, we're celebrating another Visual Artist that broke classism barriers; Laura Wheeler Waring.

"Laura’s education was exemplary.  She graduated from Hartford High School in 1906 with honors and went on to study for another six years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, one of the leading art institutes in the United States. In 1914, she received the A. William Emlen Cresson Memorial Travel Scholarship that allowed her to continue her studies of arts in major cities of Europe for a short period of time.

Waring’s most remembered work was her portraiture, which was largely of upper class Negroes and whites including James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. DuBois, Mary White Ovington and Leslie Pinckney Hill. The focus of her painting promoted charges of her being elitist; this is unfair since few people who were not of the upper classes could afford having their portraits done by professional artists.  Also, Waring’s other work such as The Co-Ed, Mother and Daughter and The Magician all pursue themes that challenge the elitist label. "-BlackPast.org

References

BlackPast.org