I know where the missing work is: Metropolitan museum visitor gets museum to rediscover a masterpiece

A painting by Jacob Lawrence (Atlantic City, 1917-Seattle, 2000) that was thought to have been lost for decades has been rediscovered and is now going on display until November 1: announcing the discovery of the painting by Lawrence, one of the greatest American artists of the 20th century, is the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which is now exhibiting the painting. The work is part of the series Struggle: From the History of the American People, a cycle of paintings executed between 1954 and 1956 and consisting of thirty works. The Metropolitan had initiated, in collaboration with the Peabody Essex Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, the exhibition Jacob Lawrence. The American Struggle, running right through November 1, and which had brought together works from the cycle whose location is known.

The one found is entitled There are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. - Washington, December 26, 1786 (“There are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. - Washington, December 26, 1786”), which depicts Shays’s revolt, an episode in American history, namely the Massachusetts farmers’ insurrection that broke out on August 29, 1786 and was led by soldier Daniel Shays. The protests arose in response to heavy state taxes and were among the events that led to the formation of the U.S. Constituent Assembly.

The panel, number 16 in the series, had not been shown in public since the 1960s, that is, since the current owner purchased it in a charity auction. It was known of its existence only because it was recorded in a brochure that accompanied its first public exhibition, which took place at the Alan Gallery in New York in 1956. The rediscovery came about by chance: a visitor to the Metropolitan Museum, who knew that a neighbor of his was in possession of a Lawrence work, walking through the halls of the exhibition suspected that the neighbor’s painting was the very one whose trail had been lost for years, and consequently convinced the owner to contact the museum. The ending was a happy one. And now four more panels, whose destination is unknown, are missing from the roll call.

After the first exhibition at the Metropolitan, which, as mentioned, runs through Nov. 1, the painting will go on tour in the next stops of the exhibition and will be shown at the Peabody Essex Museum, then in Seattle and Washington. “It’s rare to make a discovery of this importance in modern art,” said Max Hollein, director of the Met, “and it’s shocking to know that it’s all happening because of a visitor. We are also very excited for our colleagues at the Peabody Essex Museum, organizers of the exhibition that inspired this historic find. Most importantly, we look forward to welcoming our visitors to admire this addition, the next two weeks at the Met and then in the next stages of the exhibition.”

“We hoped that the missing plates would somehow resurface during the exhibition in New York, the city where Lawrence spent most of his life and where the series was last seen in public,” say Randall Griffey and Sylvia Yount, curators at the Met who co-curated the exhibition with Elizabeth Hutton Turner (University of Virginia), Austen Barron Bailly (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art) and Lydia Gordon (Peabody Essex Museum). “Lawrence’s dynamic approach to Shays’ revolt reinforces the overall theme of the series: the idea that democratic change is only possible through the actions of engaged citizens, a topic as relevant today as it was when the artist painted these seminal works in the mid-1950s.”

"Ever since we brought the Struggle series together," recalls Brian Kennedy, director of the Peabody Essex Museum, “the absence of panel 16 weighed heavily. It was represented in our gallery by an empty frame, and it was a mystery we all wanted to solve. Now we’re really excited about this discovery, which came about thanks to the attention and keen observation of a visitor, and we appreciate the owner’s generosity in allowing the work to reach the exhibition and relaunch the national tour of the exhibition.”

Pictured is the rediscovered painting.

I know where the missing work is: Metropolitan museum visitor gets museum to rediscover a masterpiece

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