Harriet Tubman (1820-1913)
Artist
Vernon Edwards
(American, 1940 - 1999)
Date1982
Mediummahogany and paint
Dimensions10 13/16 × 3 3/8 × 2 3/8 inches (27.5 × 8.6 × 6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase.
Object number1997.22.1
On View
On viewTerms
Copyright© Estate of Vernon Edwards.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextVernon Edwards was one of a small number of accomplished African American woodcarvers working in the Savannah area in the late twentieth century. He followed in the footsteps of self-taught artist Ulysses Davis and, like him, made valuable contributions to the folk art of the region.
In his youth in Georgia, Edwards was exposed to woodworking through his father, a carpenter. In his teen years, living in Cleveland Ohio, Edwards met an elderly African American carver who showed him some walking sticks he had carved. As an adult Edwards carved sporadically while he worked in various other occupations in Philadelphia. Returning to his hometown of Pooler, near Savannah, Edwards began to pursue carving to a greater extent by the 1980s. He soon developed his signature works: realistically carved walking sticks in the form of snakes, especially venomous species. At the same time, he made freestanding and relief portrait sculptures of important figures in black history. Some of these works are reminiscent of the carved portraits of Ulysses Davis, which Edwards had seen and admired in Davis’s barbershop. Though less refined, Edwards’s pieces have an undeniable emotional power that rises from a fierce sense of pride in his heritage.
Edwards’s portrait of Harriett Tubman presents the escaped slave who became a leading abolitionist in simple frontal terms. With a wide steely-eyed gaze and a rifle, Edwards’s Tubman clearly means business. Tubman did carry a rifle, both to protect the slaves she was leading to freedom and to threaten those who might entertain thoughts of backing out or leaking information about the Underground Railroad. Totemic despite its small size, this work functions as an icon of black history. By the 1990s, Edwards’s small trailer in Pooler was filled with portrait busts and writhing snake canes. By creating that intense environment, this gentle and unassuming soul elevated his humble surroundings into a powerful artistic and personal statement.