Horace Pippin

HORACE PIPPIN  (1888 - 1946)

Horace Pippin, an African American painter, was one of the foremost self-taught artists of the twentieth century. A descendant of former slaves, Pippin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a small town near Philadelphia. Raised in Goshen, New York, he settled in West Chester as an adult. Pippin saw active duty in France during World War I as a member of the famous 369th Regiment of African American troops. Shot in the shoulder by a German sniper in 1917, he subsequently rekindled his boyhood interest in art when he taught himself to paint as therapy for his injury. In 1938 the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, “Masters of Popular Painting,” included four Pippin paintings following his inclusion in a West Chester group show. Championed by Robert Carlin, his Philadelphia dealer, and by the Philadelphia collector Dr. Albert Barnes, Pippin’s talents soon garnered a national audience. In an essay ac-companying Pippin’s 1947 memorial exhibition, the Howard University scholar Alain Locke called him “a real and rare genius, combining folk quality with artistic maturity so uniquely as almost to defy classification.”

Horace Pippin was inspired by the biblical prophecy of Isaiah and painted a picture of 

peace with the lion and the lamb, the children playing with vipers and snakes, the lion eating hay with the ox and so much more.