Apr 05, 2018 - Sale 2472

Sale 2472 - Lot 12

Price Realized: $ 3,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ALLAN ROHAN CRITE (1910 - 2007)
Bootleg! Whiskey.

Pencil and graphite on buff wove paper, 1934. 318x229 mm; 12 1/2x9 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Titled in pencil, lower margin.

Provenance: private collection, Massachusetts.

This salacious drawing of a whiskey den is an early example of Crite's draughtsmanship. While studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and a member of the Boston Society of Independent Artists, Crite painted for the PWAP (Public Works of Art Project) briefly from February through April of 1934. By April, the Grace Horne Galleries on Newbury Street began showing his work. Jacob Lawrence also painted a scene of bootleg drinkers, Bootleg Whiskey—You Can Buy Bootleg Whiskey for Twenty-five Cents a Quart in his 1942-43 series Harlem.