Rocking Chair
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Rocking Chair” now? Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
In Rocking Chair, Nellie Mae Rowe presents a glimpse of her home, which she referred to as her “playhouse.” Nostalgic and eerily comforting, her composition is rich in detail and contrasting hues. Browns and greens ground the plants, animals, and windows, symbols of Rowe’s longing for connections to the outside. Small figures, possibly dolls, add life to the room. Rowe’s rocking chair sits center, its occupant absent.
Read on
Rowe created Rocking Chair soon after her diagnosis of terminal cancer, which took her life a year later. Details, like her empty chair and wilting plants, represent the fading of life. Dolls and quilt-like grids nod to a reminiscence of youth. Rowe’s longing to play contrasts with her strenuous early life, spent working, marrying, and following societal norms placed on women. Her final ode, to youth and the joys of creative freedom, complicate these traditional gender formalities.
“I ain’t gone to school to learn no work like that. I guessed at it when I was a little gal, just lay down on the floor and draw. See, we had to go to fields, pick cotton and all like that. I didn’t have a chance like I have now… I just had to go get my pencil and draw something. That was in me and it’s still in me.” - Nellie Mae Rowe
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 2019.16.29
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — © Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
