Write a Lonely Soldier
1976
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color lithograph on Rives paper
Dimensions
sheet: 54.93 × 43.82 cm (21 5/8 × 17 1/4 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Joan Palevsky
Accession Number
1981.7.8
Art Historical Context
**Write a Lonely Soldier** by June Wayne, created in 1976, is a poignant color lithograph on R paper, measuring 21⅝ × 17¼ inches. This intimate sheet captures Wayne's mastery of lithography, a 19th-century printmaking technique revived in the mid-20th century through like the one she co-founded. By drawing with greasy crayons or tusche on a flat stone or metal plate, artists like Wayne could achieve vibrant, nuanced colors and subtle textures—ideals for evoking emotional depth. Rives paper, a heavyweight cotton rag known for its velvety surface, enhances the print's luminosity and archival qua...
About the Artist
June Wayne
June Wayne (1918–2011) was a pioneering American printmaker, painter, tapestry innovator, and activist whose self-taught brilliance reshaped modern lithography and championed women in the arts. Born June Claire Kline on March 7, 1918, in Chicago to single mother Dorothy Kline—a fiercely independent Russian Jewish immigrant who fled pogroms—Wayne dropped out of high school at 15 to pursue art. Her ...