Object Details
- Artist
- Samuel Johnson Woolf, 12 Feb 1880 - 3 Dec 1948
- Sitter
- Pearl S. Buck, 26 Jun 1892 - 6 Mar 1973
- Exhibition Label
- Born Hillsboro, West Virginia
- Raised in China, where her parents were missionaries, author Pearl S. Buck made it her life’s work to foster understanding between East and West. While teaching English literature at the University of Nanking, she began writing fiction inspired by her observations of Chinese peasant life. Her second novel, The Good Earth, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932; five years later she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. After returning to the United States in 1934, Buck continued to write affectionately of the Chinese people, but her criticisms of communism cost her the opportunity to revisit the country in the 1970s. While raising a large family of adopted and foster children, Buck established organizations to improve the lives of Asian and mixed-race children. She was a cofounder of Welcome House, the first international, interracial adoption agency.
- Nacida en Hillsboro, West Virginia
- La escritora Pearl S. Buck creció en China, donde sus padres eran misioneros, y toda su vida trabajó para promover el entendimiento entre Oriente y Occidente. Comenzó a escribir ficción siendo profesora de literatura inglesa en la Universidad de Nanking, inspirada por sus observaciones de la vida rural china. Su segunda novela, La buena tierra, ganó el premio Pulitzer en 1932; cinco años más tarde, Buck sería la primera mujer estadounidense ganadora del Premio Nobel de literatura. Luego de regresar a Estados Unidos en 1934, continuó escribiendo con afecto sobre el pueblo chino, pero sus críticas al comunismo le costaron la oportunidad de visitar el país en los años setenta. Siendo madre de varios hijos adoptados, Buck fundó organizaciones para mejorar las vidas de los niños asiáticos y de raza mixta, entre ellas Welcome House, la primera agencia internacional de adopciones interraciales.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the artist's daughters, Muriel Woolf Hobson and Dorothy Woolf Ahern
- 1938
- Object number
- NPG.87.168
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Drawing
- Medium
- Charcoal with chalk on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 53.3 × 44.6 cm (21 × 17 9/16")
- Mat: 71.1 × 55.9 cm (28 × 22")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Costume\Jewelry
- Interior
- Home Furnishings\Furniture\Seating\Chair
- Costume\Jewelry\Brooch
- Artwork\Sculpture\Statue
- Pearl S. Buck: Female
- Pearl S. Buck: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer
- Pearl S. Buck: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Novelist
- Pearl S. Buck: Nobel Prize
- Pearl S. Buck: Literary awards\Pulitzer Prize
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.87.168
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm446750c58-6a60-4e65-80ee-78a4842dbcd3
