Artist

Prentiss Taylor

Portrait of Prentiss Taylor
Portrait of Prentiss Taylor

American, 1907–1991

Prentiss Taylor was an American Harlem Renaissance artist. 1 work is cataloged here, principally at Museum of Modern Art. Prentiss Taylor was born in Washington, D.C..

Prentiss Taylor (December 13, 1907 – October 7, 1991) was an American illustrator, lithographer, and painter. Born in Washington D.C., Taylor began his art studies at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, followed by painting classes under Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and training at the Art Students League in New York City. In 1931, Taylor began studying lithography at the League.

He became a member of one of the most important printmaking societies in America at that time, the Society of American Graphic Artists. Taylor interacted and collaborated with many writers and musicians in his time in New York in the late 1920s and early 30s. This was in the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance.

Among his close friends and colleagues were Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten. Taylor's work is in the collection of numerous institutions such as: the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art; The Phillips Collection; Gibbes Museum of Art; Museum of New Mexico; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art Fisk University Galleries and Greenville County Museum of Art.

Works by Prentiss Taylor

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.