Jan 30, 2020 - Sale 2528

Sale 2528 - Lot 28

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
LEON LANK LEONARD, SR. (1922 - 1993)
Pride of Eight.

Watercolor and ink on illustration board, 1971. 762x1016 mm; 30x40 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right.

Provenance: the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., Chicago.

Illustrated: Ebony, December, 1973, p. 42.

Pride of Eight is a depiction of the mother of the artist's family, based on a photograph taken when she was fourteen, by Leon Lank Leonard, Senior. Born in Waco, Texas, painter, printmaker and educator Leonard earned a BA at Texas College and earned a BFA from the University of Denver School of Art. After serving in the armed forces during World War II, Leonard moved to Los Angeles, living in Watts through the 1970s. His art has been in numerous exhibitions including the 1968 International Black Arts Exhibition in Los Angeles, and the 1971 traveling exhibition Black American Artists/'71 organized by the Illinois Arts Council and Illinois Bell Telephone. Leonard later returned to Waco in the 1980s, where he taught art in the public schools.