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

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Object Details

Title:

Date:

c. 1944

Artist:

Medium:

Charcoal and white pastel on brown paper

Dimensions

25 x 19 in.

Classification

Altarpieces

Credit Line:

Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015

Description

[lower right, in red ink]: stamped signature / stamped monogram initialsOne of Oakley’s most impressive commissions during World War II was the monumental altarpiece Christ the Carpenter, commissioned for the Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Activity at the shipyard and naval base was around the clock to produce the boats and submarines for the war. Oakley made many studies for the primary image of Jesus building a boat and the two figures flanking him. Christ is a strong young man in a tunic bearing lumber on his shoulder that foreshadows his carrying of the cross. Oakley assumed her altarpiece would become permanent, but its current location is unknown.

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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.