New to the collection:
Boston native Loïs Mailou Jones’s artistic talent was first recognized and nurtured by her high school faculty, who recommended her for a work/study program at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1930, Jones was asked to join the faculty of Howard University’s new art department. Over the next forty-seven years of her professorship, Jones shepherded generations of aspiring young Black artists while also constantly working on her own artistic practice.
Jones took a sabbatical from her teaching position in 1937, spending what would become a transformative year in Paris. She studied at the Académie Julian and immersed herself in Paris’s vibrant artistic community, particularly that of the bohemian Montmartre area. For the present painting, Paris, Jones positioned herself at the bottom of the rue Norvins looking past a boulangerie and the café Le Consulat toward the gleaming dome of Sacré-Cœur Basilica in the distance. Back in Washington, she thought of her studio as “Little Paris,” a place where Black artists and art teachers could immerse themselves in art and exchange ideas.
LOIS MAÏLOU JONES
American, 1905 – 1998
Paris, 1937
Oil on canvas board
18 ¼ x 24 inches
Museum purchase, 2025.7
