1879 –1961
Nannie Helen Burroughs was a woman of vision and determination. Born in 1879, she became an educator, orator, religious leader, civil rights activist, feminist, and businesswoman. When she was unable to find a teaching position after graduating with honors, she did not allow that disappointment to define her future. Instead, it helped shape her purpose.
In 1909, Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. She wanted Black women and girls to have access to education, practical training, leadership skills, and a wider vision of what their lives could become. She fought for racial equality and for women’s opportunities at a time when both were severely limited. Her life reminds us that one determined woman can create a path where none existed before.
left – Nannie Helen Burroughs, Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images. right – Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat), 1905. Oil on canvas. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, bequest of Elise S. Haas; photo: Glen Cheriton for SFMOMA.
About the Portraits
In creating these portraits of Nannie Helen Burroughs, I worked from a historical photograph that captured her intelligence, elegance, and quiet authority. The photograph provided the composition, but the color came from another source: Henri Matisse’s Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat). Matisse’s portrait is known for its daring use of color, where greens, reds, yellows, and blues replace the expected tones of the face and clothing.
I used that same idea as a way to free Burroughs from the limits of a black-and-white historical image. The bold colors allowed me to suggest energy, complexity, and presence. Each version of the portrait became a different interpretation of the same woman—one rooted in history, but alive with contemporary color. Through this process, I wanted the viewer to feel not only what Burroughs looked like, but the force of who she was.
