Cream of Wheat for "Sail"
Date1912
Artist
Katharine Richardson Wireman
(American illustrator and painter, 1878–1966)
Illustration CitationAdvertisement for Cream of Wheat cereal
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)
frame: 27 1/2 × 21 1/2 × 1 3/8 in. (69.9 × 54.6 × 3.5 cm)
frame: 27 1/2 × 21 1/2 × 1 3/8 in. (69.9 × 54.6 × 3.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Sharon S. Galm, 2010
Object number2010-25
On View
On viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextLike Aunt Jemima pancake syrup and Uncle Ben’s rice, Cream of Wheat used the image of a Black cook to sell their product—a breakfast porridge. Cream of Wheat’s fictional cook, Rastus, was based on racist caricatures popularized in the Uncle Remus books and minstrel shows. The company required that illustrators include this figure in their advertisements. In 2020, Cream of Wheat ceased using this figure on their packaging.Katharine Richardson Wireman was one of many celebrated illustrators sought out by the Cream of Wheat Company for its advertising campaign begun in 1896. The artist's daughter Mary was the model for this ad which, like others of its type, often appeared inside the front covers of leading magazines. Here the little girl seems to have torn out such a page for her impromptu sail.
Katharine Richardson Wireman
1912
