Jun 10, 2014 - Sale 2353

Sale 2353 - Lot 9

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
CHARLES ALSTON (1907 - 1977)
Untitled (Portrait of Lena Horne).

Color pastel crayons and watercolor on wove paper, circa 1950. 400x305 mm; 15 3/4x12 inches. Signed in crayon, lower left.

Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner.

Charles Alston and Lena Horne were friends and neighbors. Both were residents in the grand pre-war Harlem apartment building, 555 Edgecombe Avenue, once known as 'The Triple Nickel.' Joe Louis ,Count Basie, Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Coleman Hawkins, Erskine Hawkins, Canada Lee, Teddy Wilson, Mary Lou Williams, Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges, Don Redman, Andy Kirk, Dr. Kenneth Clark, and Charles Buchanan, the owner of the Savoy, all lived there. An abstract oil on canvas by Charles Alston was in Lena Horne estate, and was sold at her estate auction at Doyle, New York, in 2011.