One gouache drawing by Aaron Douglas created to illustrate "The Prodigal Son" in God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, by James Weldon Johnson (New York: Viking Press, 1927). The illustration features silhouettes of a man and two women grouped under a single overhead light, and framed by graphic representations of jazz-age vices such as a dollar bill, playing cards, dice, and a gin bottle, as well as jazz trombones, jutting in from the outside edges. It is one of eight illustrations by Douglas for the volume.
Alternative Title:
The Prodigal Son
Description:
Aaron Douglas, American painter and illustrator active in the Harlem Renaissance; he was born in 1899 in Topeka, Kansas, and died in 1979 in Nashville, Tennessee., Gift of Grace Nail Johnson, 1966., and Title devised by cataloger.
Subject (Name):
Douglas, Aaron and Johnson, James Weldon, 1871-1938.--God's Trombones--Illustrations
Subject (Topic):
Illustration of books--United States and Illustrators--United States