Oil on linen canvas, circa 1970. 508x610 mm; 20x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower left.
Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
This oil painting is a very strong example of the artist's mid-career "metaphysical" phase, which began in the early 1960s. Lee-Smith moved away from social realism and his figurative scenes left the abandoned lots and rooftops of Detroit and New York. Here, as in many of his 1960 and '70s paintings, the tension between isolated figures is loosely defined and existential, but with typical Lee-Smith elements of a mysterious waterfront.
