Aaron Douglas was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a critical period in U.S. cultural history. Although best known for synthesizing elements of Cubism, Art Deco, and African art, Douglas was also a skilled portraitist. His talent for capturing the sitter’s distinctive personality and physical presence is evident in this elegant portrait of Julia Washington Bond, a former research librarian at Atlanta University’s Woodruff Library. She married educator and writer Horace Mann Bond and raised three children, among them civil rights leader Julian Bond.