Laura G, Sassy 70’s<p>Your art history post for today: by Robert Smullyan Sloan (1915–2013), “Negro Soldier," 1945, egg tempera and oil on board, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. <a href="https://deacon.social/tags/arthistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>arthistory</span></a></p><p>From Sebastian Smee, “‘Negro Soldier’: a haunting portrait worthy of salute,” The Boston Globe, June 26, 2016: “It shows an unknown US Army private in a dress uniform adorned with two ribbons — one standing for good conduct, the other for participation in the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign…</p><p>The astonishing portrait shows his subject sitting in a compressed space, squeezed between us and a window. Through that window we can make out an urban scene that is likely New York. There is a black truck loaded with coal, apartment buildings catching various degrees of light, and a run of down-at-heel shops at street level. One sign says “LOANS CASH”; another has mannequins in the window display…</p><p>Even after fighting for their country in foreign theaters of war, African-American soldiers, if they were lucky enough to survive, faced hobbling prejudice back home. This picture, one might argue, illustrates that predicament.</p><p>But isn’t it too singular to be reduced to sociology? Sloan makes us feel so close to this man that we become acutely aware that his nose, the bulge of his tie, and the gleaming brass button at the center of his chest occupy pockets of space nearer to us than his eyes. Slightly recessed though they are, his eyes gaze out with a vulnerable pride that is haunting.</p><p>Sloan maintains an almost Flemish evenness of attention across the entire picture. This gives it a surface tension that either we or the vivid, light-catching protrusions of the soldier’s slightly turned face feel permanently on the verge of breaking.</p><p>We kid ourselves if we think we can know what this man is feeling, what he has experienced, or what his political views are. What is not in doubt is that he is a human vessel, full to overflowing.”</p>