Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
1939
Black-and-white lithograph
7 ½” x 10” plate
Color lithograph
10 1/16” x 12 7/8” plate
Made around 1940, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot appeared in Alain Locke’s ground breaking treatise, The Negro in Art, and again as an illustration in a New York Times Book Review from 1952. As with other spirituals that represented the Copperville congregation, the interpretations of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot involved an ongoing creative process among members of the community and artist. The artist reworked her color lithograph in the form of a black-and-white lithograph and eventually an oil painting. This piece was also listed to be included in her unpublished manuscript on Negro spirituals.
