October 7, 2010
Live Auction104 East 25th Street
New York, NY, 10010 USA
Phone: 212.254.4710
Fax: 212 979 1017
Email: swann@swanngalleries.com
Viewing NotesExhibition & Sale Schedule: Sale 2224 - African-American Fine Art - begins at 2:30pm in New York on Thurs, Oct 7. All material in Sale 2224 on display at our premises in New York City, 104 East 25th Street, as follows - Sat, Oct 2: 10am to 4pm - Mon, Oct 4: 10am to 6pm - Tues, Oct 5: 10am to 6pm - Wed, Oct 6: 10am to 6pm - Thurs, Oct 7: 10am to Noon.
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Lot 1: WILLIAM A. HARPER (1873 - 1910) Untitled (French Landscape).
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Description: WILLIAM A. HARPER (1873 - 1910) Untitled (French Landscape). Oil on canvas, 1905. 413x514 mm; 16 1/4x20 1/4 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right. Provenance: Treadway Gallery, Chicago, purchased in the 1980s; private collection. William Harper was born in Cayuga, Canada. His family moved to Illinois in 1885, and Harper attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1895-1901, working as a nightwatch man and janitor to pay for his tuition. He studied in Paris from 1903-1905 at the Académie Julian. In 1905, Harper earned the Municipal Art League's blue ribbon at the Art Institute of Chicago for nine of his paintings. On a return trip to France from 1907-08, Harper studied with Henry Ossawa Tanner. Harper's career was cut short when he died of tuberculosis only a few years later at the age of 36. The Art Institute held a memorial exhibition in Harper's honor, showcasing 60 of his works. This is only the third landscape of his to come to auction. His paintings are found today in the collections of Tuskegee University and Dr. Walter O. Evans. Barnwell p. 157; Kenndey p. 119.
Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.
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Lot 2: ARTHUR P. BEDOU (1882 - 1966) The Clique, Fisk University Campus.
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Description: ARTHUR P. BEDOU (1882 - 1966) The Clique, Fisk University Campus. Silver print, circa 1915. 121x171 mm; 4 3/4x6 3/4 inches, full margins. Inscribed "Bedou N.O." in black ink on the mount, lower right.
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Lot 3: ARTHUR P. BEDOU (1882 - 1966) Booker T. Washington on Horseback.
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Description: ARTHUR P. BEDOU (1882 - 1966) Booker T. Washington on Horseback. Silver print, 1915. 197x244 mm; 7 3/4x9 5/8 inches, full margins. With the artist's stamp, "Copyright by A. P. Bedou 1915, N.O., LA" in the negative, lower right. Illustrated: Deborah Willis, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present, p. 55. Arthur P. Bedou, a New Orleans photographer, documented life in the city for over 50 years. He is known for photographs of Booker T. Washington's public and private life--including this view of Washington in front of his personal residence, as well as Louisiana jazz musicians and life on the Tuskegee University campus.
Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.
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Lot 4: ARTHUR P. BEDOU (1882 - 1966) Booker T. Washington, Speaking in his Last Pilgrimage in Louisiana.
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Description: ARTHUR P. BEDOU (1882 - 1966) Booker T. Washington, Speaking in his Last Pilgrimage in Louisiana. Silver print, 1915. 191x241 mm; 7 1/2x9 1/2 inches, full margins. With the artist's stamp, "Copyright By A. P. Bedou, N.O., LA., 1915" in ink, upper right. Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute in 1881, was a celebrated leader in the African-American education movement. His last pilgrimage to Louisiana took place in April, 1915, where he spoke at various black parishes in Louisiana about the importance of education. Despite his failing health, Washington spoke to the crowds with the same passion and spirit that made him a renowned orator. He died in November of that year.
Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.
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Lot 5: AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Gamin.
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Description: AUGUSTA SAVAGE (1892 - 1962) Gamin. Plaster painted dark brown, circa 1929. Approximately 230 mm; 9 inches high. With the artist's name inscribed, at the edge of the base verso. Provenance: private New York collection. Gamin has come to symbolize African-American sculpture in the Harlem Renaissance. This fine example is the smaller painted plaster version of the life-size bronze made by Augusta Savage, which represents a turning point in her career. Theresa Leininger-Miller describes how Gamin brought Savage success at the end of the 1920s. Out of 10 works on display at Harlem's 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library, Charles Russell Richards, the art director of the General Education Board of New York, singled out Savage, recognizing Gamin as a significant work. Two Harlem businessmen, Eugene Kinckle Jones, of the National Urban League, and John E. Nail, father-in-law of James Weldon Jones, also singled out Gamin for acclaim. The sculpture was illustrated on the cover of Opportunity in June 1929, and exhibited at the Harmon Foundation in 1930. It also earned the artist a scholarship from the Rosenwald Foundation. Other versions are found today in the collections of Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, the Howard University Art Museum, Washington, DC and the University of Virgina Art Museum. Leininger-Miller pp. 178-179; Bearden/Henderson p. 172.
Condition Report: All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.
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