?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man Painting.
Charcoal and graphite on buff wove paper, 1939. 229x152 mm; 9x6 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left.
Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.
Exhibited: Stages of Influence: The Universal Theatre of Hughie Lee-Smith, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, February 6 - June 3, 2001.
This early autobiographical drawing is closely related to Hughie Lee-Smith's two important 1939 lithographs, Artist's Life No. 1 and 2. In this series, Lee-Smith reflects upon the role of an artist in society through his experiences teaching at the Karamu Settlement House during the WPA. Lee-Smith's sketch of a confident, young African-American painter isolated against a stark wasteland reflects the struggles of artists during the Depression.
