ROMARE BEARDEN (1911 -1988) Untitled (Walking in the Garden).
Watercolor on wove paper, circa 1985. 489x444 mm; 19¼x17½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right.
Provenance: private collection, New York.
This atmospheric scene is an excellent example of Romare Bearden's experimentation in watercolor in the 1980s. Watercolor is an important part in the artist's oeuvre beginning with his modernist Passion of Christ series painted in 1945. Bearden was influenced by the watercolors of the German expressionist master George Grosz who taught Bearden at the Art Students League in New York in the early 1930s. In this late period of his career, Bearden displays a creative mastery of watercolor. They are both a culmination of his artistic improvisation with the medium, and his awareness of the traditions of his second home on the Caribbean island of St. Martin.
