Harry Willson Watrous - The Drop Sinister—What Shall We Do with It? (ca. 1913)
Around 1913, Watrous painted The Drop Sinister, What Shall We Do with It?, which was visually similar to his other works at the time, but, by addressing an issue of social and moral concern, was unique among his paintings. It is said to be the first known portrait of an American interracial family. The father wears a clerical collar and holds a Christian newspaper in his hand; on the wall is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and a quotation, "And God said, Let us make man in our own image after our likeness."
The painting caused a stir when it was exhibited at the National Academy of Design and at the Century Club in New York. "Harry W. Watrous preaches and paints well an interesting sermon on the negro question in The Drop Sinister," commented American Art News, which also called it "one of his best canvases." This "study in the fruits of miscegenation…caused an extraordinary amount of discussion, residents of one typically Southern city threatening to wreck the art museum if it was shown there."
The painting appears to depict a mixed marriage, which was illegal in many states at the time. The Crisis, the N.A.A.C.P. journal edited by W.E.B. DuBois, had a different idea about what was going on in the picture:
The people in this picture are all "colored"; that is to say the ancestors of all of them two or three generations ago numbered among them full-blooded Negroes. These "colored" folk married and brought to the world a little golden-haired child; today they pause for a moment and sit aghast when they think of this child's future.
What is she? A Negro? No, she is "white." But is she white? The United States Census says she is a "Negro." What earthly difference does it make what she is, so long as she grows up a good, true, capable woman? But her chances for doing this are small! Why?
Because 90,000,000 of her neighbors, good Christian, noble, civilized people are going to insult her, seek to ruin her and slam the door of opportunity in her face the moment they discover "The Drop Sinister." (source)
uh oh i just saw a girl blogger post a B&W picture of herself she must be trying to trick us into thinking shes older and less relevant than she actually is. luckily i ran the photo through an AI colorization module so now i can interpret her as a human being instead of some old timey shit i dont care about
haha ❤️ hilarious post my friend! *eyes narrow and my face goes stone serious* but it does not resonate with my own ideological schema, so i shall not be reblogging it
i think the fact that i have seen two posts about the frogs button and both were basically "ok i guess" is a real signifier of how fed up the site userbase is with Tumblr's shit
I emailed myself a post so I could open it on my desktop, since my phone app refused to do what I was asking. The desktop had a frog button. I ignored it, because what I wanted to do was read the post I couldn’t read on mobile and had to email to the desktop in hopes I could read it there.
ALTI know this stupid take comes back around every year or so but in this case it’s very funny seeing them in the thread explicitly calling for age gap consent laws and that a 29 year old woman doesn’t have any agency over an 83 year old man
this screenshot is especially enjoyable to read on my Fucking Old Men Appreciators Fanclub Website app
men will see they’re about to drive into a wall, stop and make you get out of the car with no explanation, and then drive directly into the wall.
harvey guillen is a better photo model than the majority of fashion models working today. modeling is a skill. you can just stand in front of a camera being thin, I’ve done it, it’s not easy and is in of itself a difficult labor (the majority of people would have a tantrum on day one of a major fashion shoot not to mention the extracurriculars of diet and maintenance required), but some people are just really good at working a camera and most aren’t. this is traditionally what sets supermodels apart from the rest
Timelapse for this one, I didn’t go in with a solid idea so you can see me just feeling it out.