We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility...

1955

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

The idealism presented in the preamble to the Constitution trails off through Lawrence’s use of an ellipsis in his title caption, suggesting the delegates’ four months of intense work in Philadelphia’s summer heat. The painting shows representatives of the original thirteen British- American colonies crowded in a dark space; they gesticulate, sweat, and spar with one another. Sword hilts symbolize the quorum of nine states required to ratify the Constitution. Its final passage was predicated on the Three-Fifths Compromise, a concession to the South that meant enslaved African Americans would be counted for the census but not given freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote. Rather than represent a fictional moment of peaceful resolution, Lawrence presents an American creation story defined by political struggle and moral exhaustion.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility...
Artist: Jacob Lawrence (American, Atlantic City, New Jersey 1917–2000 Seattle, Washington)
Date: 1955
Medium: Egg tempera on hardboard
Dimensions: 12 × 16 in. (30.5 × 40.6 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Francis H. Burr Memorial Fund. Anonymous Fund in memory of Henry Berg, and Alpheus Hyatt Fund
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art