Loïs Mailou Jones

This is my impression of an African American artist. Her name is Loïs Mailou Jones and she is thought to be the only female African American painter who achieved fame abroad in the 1930s and 40s, and till today, her work is valued by art collectors and can be found in the permanent collections of many important museums all over the world.

She also was a friend of Josephine Baker and is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance. 

Loïs Mailou was an art teacher at the Howard University in Washington, D.C. She was then offered a fellowship to go and study at the Académie Julian in Paris and during the year she was in Paris, she produced around forty paintings, many of which were created working outside. Some of her paintings were included in the annual Salon de Printemps and at the Société des Artists Français. Loïs Mailou was really enjoying her time in Paris, moreover as she felt fully accepted, and she could walk, eat and paint wherever she wanted. Something that wasn’t the case in the United States with so much racial prejudice at the time. 

This painting is part of my women in Paris series. I was inspired to create this series whilst I was working on my book 'The HeArt of Paris A unique journey to pay homage to women who made the evolution of art possible'. The book is available from bookshops and Amazon as of November 2024.