Lincoln and Washington
Oil and house paint on canvas
h. 19-1/4 w. 24-1/4 in. (sight)
Housed in the original frame, signed and dated "Walter W. Ellison 2.20.1928" lower left, inscribed on verso "Drawed by Walter Ellison 2.20.1928"; a copy of a news clipping of Lincoln's freeing of the slaves is attached to the back, with EAMA labels on verso

overall: 26-1/4 x 31-1/4 in. (frame)

Walter Ellison was born in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1900. As a teenager he moved to Chicago, joining the Great Migration, which took place between 1910 and 1970. In these years, over six million African Americans left their homes in the South to look for a better life in the cities of the North. Ellison's paintings depict scenes from his own life and the story of other African Americans living during the early decades of this century. Ellison's double-portrait (here) of America's foremost presidents framed by two American flags is an icon of freedom; Np, 1928-29 Refer to Department Executed during the first year of the Great Depression

On the artist's original stretcher, with a hand painted frame in black and white oil presumably by the artist himself. Scattered craquelure, partially closed horizontal tear extreme upper left corner, scattered chips on the frame.