PALMER HAYDEN (1890 - 1973) Le Thonier à Basse Marée Concarneau.
Oil on linen canvas, circa 1927-30. 552x457 mm; 21¾x18 inches. Signed, lower left recto. Titled and dedicated "With fondest regards to The Harold Neals from the artist", verso.
Provenance Gift from the artist. Mr. and Mrs. Harold M. Neal, Pittsburgh. Luise Ross Gallery, New York. Private collection, Connecticut (1994).
Harold M. Neal was an artist and educator who befriended Hayden while organizing exhibitions of African-American artists in Pittsburgh in the 1960s.
This oil painting is a scarce, early canvas of one of Palmer Hayden's favorite subjects. In the summer of 1927, Hayden produced a group of oil paintings, watercolors and sketches from along the Brittany coast. Le Thonier à Basse Marée Concarneau was painted either during this trip or shortly after the artist's return to New York. Le Thonier is a tuna fishing boat - images of these are found in several of his sketchbooks from Concarneau in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
