Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection Audio Exhibition
Unidentified American Artist, All We Ask Is a Fair Trial, late 19th–early 20th century, oil on canvas mounted on wood panel, 36 x 46 in. (91.4 x 116.8 cm), Collection of Richard Rosenthal
Verbal Description
Hello, my name is Rick Young, and I am a gallery attendant at the museum. I will be reading the verbal description for All We Ask Is a Fair Trial by an Unidentified American Artist in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
An unidentified American artist created the painting, All We Ask Is a Fair Trial, in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century. It is an oil on canvas mounted on a wood panel. It is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
All We Ask is a Fair Trial is a horizontally oriented, rectangular painting measuring 36 by 46 inches or 91.4 by 116.8 centimeters. In this work, an unidentified artist shows two nearly identical bald or shaved-headed men, one slightly taller than the other, wearing black and white striped shirts and standing at the center behind a window with prison bars. Their arms extend out and down through the bars. The window is in the center of a red brick wall that extends to the edges of the canvas. Above the prisoners is a sweeping black banner that says, in yellow writing, “All We Ask.” Below the cell window, another banner, also in black with yellow writing, completes the statement “Is A Fair Trial.”
Label Text
Hello, my name is Rick Young, and I am a gallery attendant at the museum. I will be reading the label for All We Ask Is a Fair Trial by an Unidentified American Artist in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
An unidentified American artist created the painting, All We Ask Is a Fair Trial, in the late late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century. It is an oil on canvas mounted on a wood panel. It is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
The banners in this painting and the composition’s bold design resemble shop signs of the late nineteenth century. They suggest that the painter may have been a commercial artist by trade. The twin figures behind prison bars extend their hands towards us in a plea for justice that still resonates today. Whether the painting refers to a specific case has yet to be determined.