Study for Front Yard Baseball Game
Daten. d.
Mediumgouache on wove paper
DimensionsImage: 13 7/8 × 15 1/4 inches (35.2 × 38.7 cm)
Sheet: 13 7/8 × 22 inches (35.2 × 55.9 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Augusta Oelschig.
Object number2019.41.30
Copyright© Estate of Augusta Oelschig.
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 TextBorn in Savannah, Georgia to owners of a retail florist shop and nursery, Augusta Oelschig was artistically inclined from an early age. Educated at Savannah’s Armstrong College and the University of Georgia in Athens, where she graduated with a B.F.A. in 1939, Oelschig also benefited from her studies with local artists including American Impressionist painter Emma Wilkins, Henry Lee McFee (a noted American artist associated with the Woodstock, NY art colony) and Alexander Brook. Brook became nationally known for his painting Georgia Jungle (1939) which depicted a destitute African-American family living in Savannah; this work fueled Oelschig’s interest in African American subject matter, which dominated her early works from the 1940s.
From the late 1940s through the 1960s, Oelschig grew increasingly passionate about social issues and, in addition to painting local scenes, began to explore sensitive social and political topics. Oelschig’s artistic legacy creates complex social commentary by exploring aspects of African-American life in the low country. She painted a variety of strong themes, and much of her art considers the serious social injustice of Southern race relations. Oelschig’s ability to simultaneously experiment with realism and abstraction and explore diverse subject matter sets her apart from many other painters in the region during her time.
