Born in Eagle Shute, Louisiana, M.C.
Jones spent most of his life as a laborer picking cotton and doing
yard work on the Lynn Plantation, just east of
the Texas border. He acquired the nickname "5¢"
because he was only about five feet tall.
His paintings capture the spirit of rural farm life in scenes
depicting small town fiestas and honky-tonk bands, church weddings
and baptisms, wagons loaded with watermelons and wash day; but they
also recall the uglier side of life in the country in paintings with
Klansmen on horseback arriving with pistols waving in the air.
His portraits of family members are especially wonderful. His
work also includes religious themes in paintings of Noah's Ark, the
Crucifixion, and the Garden of Eden.
M.C. Jones is included in the collections of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and the Louisiana State Museum.
Self-Portrait by M.C. Jones
14 x 11 image; 24 x 20 framed
$900
