EDWARD L. LOPER, SR. (1916 - 2011) Railroad Aqueduct, Wilmington.
Oil on cotton canvas, 1952. 406x508 mm; 16x20 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Provenance: the estate of Constance E. Clayton, Philadelphia.
This urban landscape is an excellent example of the paintings of Edward L. Loper, Sr.. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Loper first worked as a young artist during the WPA, where he drew decorative art for the Index of American Design from 1936-1942. Loper, however, quickly became known for his landscape painting. He was the first African American artist to have a painting accepted by the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts when his After a Shower won honorable mention at a 1938 exhibition and was later purchased for its permanent collection. He was also included in two 1940s landmark studies of African American art history, Alain Locke's 1940 The Negro in Art. and James A. Porter's 1943 Modern Negro Art.
From 1947, Loper continued to paint landcapes of Delaware scenes while teaching art full time. His 1950s paintings began to show the influence of Picasso and with a neo-Cubist approach to composition. Loper had an extensive career as an educator, teaching at the Delaware Art Museum, Lincoln University and the Jewish Community Center in Delaware. The Delaware Art Museum organized Loper's first retrospective in 1996, and the University of Delaware presented another retrospective in 2007. Loper's paintings are in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Delaware Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Clark-Atlanta University Collection of African American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
