Paul Robeson's appearance in the title role in The Emperor Jones catapulted him to stardom in 1925, and his popularity soared with a 1930 Othello that ran for nearly three hundred performances. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Joe in both the stage and movie versions of Show Boat, singing "Ol' Man River." He stopped making films in 1942, explaining, "The industry is not prepared to permit me to portray the life or express the living interests, hopes, and aspirations of the struggling people from whom I come." Robeson's left-wing sentiments became a focal point of anti-Communism in the postwar era, and his American career largely came to an end. He lived abroad, returning to the United States for a farewell concert at Carnegie Hall in 1958; he lived his later years in seclusion in Philadelphia. American artist William H. Johnson created this oil painting, depicting Robeson and his various activities, around 1945.
Paul Robeson's Relations
- Exhibition Label
- Paul Robeson's Relations was a personal painting for Johnson. He had met Robeson when the actor was in Copenhagen in 1935, and Robeson owned several of Johnson's paintings. By the time Johnson painted Paul Robeson's Relations, Robeson (1898--1976) was an international star of stage and screen. Roles as Joe in Show Boat and as the psychologically complex protagonist of The Emperor Jones had launched his career in the 1920s, but by the mid-1930s Robeson was as well-known as a Civil Rights activist as he was for his deep, resonant voice and powerful stage presence. He defied the stereotyping that pervaded movie and theater scripts by replacing demeaning lyrics with words of protest and affirmation. He changed the lines "Tote that barge, lift that bale, get a little drunk and you land in jail" from Show Boat's "Ol' Man River," for example, to "show a little grit and you land in jail." Johnson presents Robeson attired for the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and surrounded by a tiny paddle wheeler (Showboat); a baseball bat; and flags of Norway, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and Finland that attest to his brilliant international career.
- In 1934, after traveling to the Soviet Union, Robeson said that for the first time in his life, he was treated not as "a Negro, but a human being." There, he continued, "I walk in full human dignity." His lifelong work for justice--from integrating professional baseball to opposing colonial rule in Africa--resulted in his being tracked by the FBI and black-listed during the Cold War.
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Artist
- William H. Johnson, born Florence, SC 1901-died Central Islip, NY 1970
- Sitter
- Paul Robeson
- Date
- ca. 1945
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation
- Medium
- oil on hardboard (Masonite)
- Dimensions
- 36 3/8 x 28 5/8 in. (92.5 x 72.6 cm)
- Type
- Painting
