Charles Henry Alston’s "Farm Boy"

1941

Alston was a painter and prominent Harlem Renaissance artist.

Charles Henry Alston was one of the many artists who traveled through the South to learn about rural African American life. His 1940 trip to various farm sites with Farm Security Administration inspector Giles Hubert resulted in Farm Boy.

On his trip Alston noted the extreme poverty that African Americans, especially farmers, experienced below the Cotton Belt—the region in the South where cotton was a successful cash crop. This painting is one of many depicting Black farm life that was acquired by the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum.