Fan

Copied Sister Gertrude Morgan, Fan, ca. 1970, paint and ink on card, 9 3⁄4 × 8 1⁄2 in. (24.8 × 21.6 cm) irregular, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.43R-V

Artwork Details

Title
Fan
Artist
Date
ca. 1970
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
9 3⁄4 × 8 1⁄2 in. (24.8 × 21.6 cm) irregular
Credit Line
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description
paint and ink on card
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Architecture
  • Figure group
  • Landscape
  • African American
  • Occupation — medicine — nurse
  • Figure female — full length
  • Object — written matter — book
  • Religion — angel
Object Number
2016.38.43R-V
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.38.43R-V

Artwork Description

Sister Gertrude Morgan fashioned paper fans like this one for people to use during prayer meetings at her Everlasting Gospel Mission. During her services, Morgan sang, played guitar or tambourine, and encouraged a call-and-response singing style among attendees. On one side of this fan, Morgan painted a scene of New Jerusalem, a symbolic, heavenly city for the devout, described in the Book of Revelation. On the front-facing side, Morgan depicted herself in nurse’s clothing, conveying her self-chosen role as a spiritual healer of the soul.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and