VINCENT SMITH (1929 - 2003) Street Scene (From Saturday Night in Harlem Series).
Oil on linen canvas, 1954. 610x762 mm; 24x30 inches. Signed "Vincent" and dated in oil, lower right.
Provenance: the artist, New York; Lacarda Gallery, New York; G. W. Einstein Company, Inc., New York; Alexandre Fine Art, New York, with the labels verso.
This expressionist scene is an excellent example of Vincent Smith's nocturnal painting, and the first painting by the artist from his important early Saturday Night in Harlem Series to come to auction. With this series of work, Smith established his career in New York; he had only become a full time painter the year before after being inspired by a Cezanne exhibition he attended at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1955, the Brooklyn native had his first solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum Art School Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
