?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,000
RICHMOND BARTHÉ (1901 - 1989) The Black Boy (Head of Boy).
Painted plaster, circa 1930. Approximately 235 mm; 9 1/4 inches high.
Provenance: G. R. N'Namdi Gallery; private collection, IL (2000).
This small plaster head is a good example of an early work by Richmond Barthé. At the time, the Chicago artist struggled to find commissions, but showed regularly at the Harmon Foundation exhibitions of 1929, 1931 and 1933 in New York. With this and others like Head of Boy and Mask of a Boy, both circa 1929-31, Barthé demonstrated a great sensitivity and expressiveness on a small scale. Another cast of the same head entitled The Black Boy was sold at Bonham's on May 5, 2012. Reynolds/Wright pl. 11, p. 158; Vendryes p. 53.
