Artist: Jacob Lawrence
Date: 1955
Size: 31 x 41 cm
Technique: Tempera
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.
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