When I Was a Little Girl

A woman in a long blue dress hands a child fruit; they are surrounded by two seated human figures and one flying overhead, all against a multicolored background including numbers and portraits.

Object Details

Artist/Maker

Nellie Mae Rowe, American, 1900–1982

Date

1978

Medium

Crayon, marker, colored pencil, and pencil on paper

Dimensions

Please contact the Museum for more information

Credit

Purchase with Folk Art Acquisition Fund

Accession #

2002.73

Image Copyright

Rowe captures the thwarted artistic efforts of her childhood through a series of vignettes in this work: one version of herself as a child floats across the composition, attaching drawings to the walls of her bedroom. Because her homemade adhesive attracted rats, Rowe was punished, and her mother can be seen holding a reed in one hand and a sweet fruit for her daughter in the other at the picture’s center. One of the dolls that Rowe made from dirty laundry appears at right, waiting to be played with and ultimately undone on wash day.