Watercolor, brush and ink on cream wove paper, 1946. 460x620mm; 18 1/8x24 1/2 inches. Signed in ink, lower right. From the Rabelais series.
Provenance: ex-collection of the artist; private New York collection.
Exhibited: Challenge of the Modern, African-American Artists 1925-1945, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, January 23 - March, 30, 2003, with the label on the frame back.
An example from Bearden's Rabelais series, this watercolor is a masterful composition of line and color. Inspired by François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel 16th Century satire, Bearden gave this watercolor an allusion to the ribaldry of the period. A group of 18 works were shown at the Kootz Gallery from Feburary 24 to March 15, 1947. Myron Schwartzman described two kinds of scenes in the series: "drinking, carousing, and dancing on the one hand; hunting on the other," with titles drawn from Rabelais that suggest the sense of joie de vivre found in the works. Schwartzman p. 149.
