Oil on masonite, 1952. 355x255 mm; 14x10 inches. Incised signature and date, upper left.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, private collection, Detroit; thence by descent to the current owner.
This remarkable and early self-portrait was painted the same year Hughie Lee-Smith painted many of his well-known street scenes, like Boy with Tire in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Lee-Smith had returned to Detroit from Chicago by the early 1950s, and was enrolled at Wayne State University where he earned a B.S. degree in 1953. With this work, Lee-Smith gives us insight into his growing self-awareness as an artist. The composition, costume and use of an outline all suggest an homage to Picasso, particularly his Self-Portrait with a Palette of 1906 in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
