Feb 17, 2009 - Sale 2169

Sale 2169 - Lot 6

Price Realized: $ 1,920
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
EDWIN A. HARLESTON (1882 - 1931)
Servant and Child.

Pen and ink on cream wove paper. 315x202 mm; 12 1/2x8 inches (sheet). Initialed in ink, lower right.

Provenance: the artist; Edwina Harleston Whitlock; thence by descent to the current owner, Atlanta, GA. This undated drawing is very scarce - a pen and ink sketch that was found pasted inside a family photograph album.

Harleston is known for his realistic portraits of working African Americans and their life in the early 20th century. He painted portraits while working in the family funeral business after returning to Charleston from his World War I military service. In 1920, Harleston married Elise Forrest, a photographer, and two years later, they opened a studio - the first of its kind in Charleston. Harleston developed his reputation for portraiture, winning several prestigious commissions. At the request of Aaron Douglas, he assisted in painting murals for Fisk University in 1930. In February of 1931, Harleston learned that he had finally won a Harmon Foundation award; he died from pneumonia only three months later.

Harleston's paintings are found in the collections of The Gibbes Museum of Art and the Old Slave Mart Museum, both in Charleston, Fisk University, Howard University, Clark Atlanta University and Dr. Walter O. Evans, Savannah, GA.