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Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel, "Christ the Carpenter" World War II Portable Altarpiece
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Composition study for "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel
Composition study for "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel

Composition study for "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel

Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel, "Christ the Carpenter" World War II Portable Altarpiece
,
Philadelphia, PA

Object Details

Title:
Composition study for "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel
Date:
c. 1944
Artist:
Medium:
Pen and ink and graphite on poster board
Dimensions
22 1/8 x 14 in.
Classification
No items found.
Credit Line:
Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015
Description

[beneath center panel in graphite]: [Passages from Psalm 127, and]: Except The Lord Build The House They Labor / In Vain That Build It [indecipherable]; [on the plinth supporting the center panel in graphite]: Christ The Carpenter / Building A Fishing Boat; [within center panel, bottom right in ink]: Monogram initials / 1944; [below the altar at right, in graphite]: Violet Oakley, Philadelphia; [bottom left in graphite]: Triptych for the League Island Chapel / Philadelphia Navy Yard; [verso in graphite]: Return to / Violet Oakley / St. George's Road / Philadelphia 19-One of Oakley's most impressive altarpieces was the monumental Christ the Carpenter for the Philadelphia Naval Yard Chapel, which portrays Jesus as a strong young man in a tunic building the hull of a ship. Beneath the workbench, his pet dog watches as he bears lumber onto his shoulder in a pose that foreshadows the carrying of the cross.

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The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
Woodmere’s website infrastructure and the digitization of the Museum’s collection are made possible by the generous support of Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden.