Oil monotype on Arches paper, mounted on linen canvas, circa 1975. 749x1048 mm; 29 1/2x41 1/4 inches. Signed in ball point pen and blue ink, upper left.
Provenance: private collection, New York.
This is a very good and early example of Romare Bearden's series of monotypes depicting Storyville, the infamous, 19th-century New Orleans bordello district. Sharon Patton connected his choice of subject with the 1970 Museum of Modern Art exhibition of Storyville photographs. Prostitutes photographed by E. J. Bellocq in the early 20th century were reprinted by the photographer Lee Friedlander from the original glass-plate negatives. Bearden had a copy of the museum catalogue in his library. Another of his Storyville monotypes is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Fine pp. 92 -95.
