Oil on canvas, 1987. 915x1170 mm; 36x46 inches. Signed in oil, lower left.
Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
Exhibited: June Kelly Gallery, New York, with the label on the frame back.
Après-Midi is the first significant later work, and the largest painting, by Hughie Lee-Smith to be offered at auction. The evocative painting demonstrates Lee-Smith's consistent exploration of both surrealism and the depiction of modern isolation. In addition to the gritty urban settings with which he is most identified, Lee-Smith's oeuvre includes many beach or waterfront scenes. Despite the atmosphere of a sun-drenched afternoon, the tone is sober and quiet in Après-Midi. The gentle movements of billowing clouds and fluttering ribbons are punctuated briefly by the motion of a solitary young woman raising a blanket or shawl. In 1988, upon reviewing his retrospective at the New Jersey State Museum, Viven Raynor wrote of Lee-Smith's surrealism: he "may not be the only black exponent of the style, but he is surely the only one to perceive how closely the fantasy world engendered by the technique corresponds with the real world inhabited by black Americans from all walks of life."
