Avery Handly Jr. (Tennessee, 1913-1958) oil on canvas waist length self portrait of the artist as a young man. Note: Portrait documented by the Tennessee Portrait Project in 2003. His right hand is on a post of a stair or bridge with his body slightly turned; in the left background the back of a person with red hair is visible and at right, a light shines overhead. Unsigned. Old exhibition label fastened verso for the Fifteenth Annual Exhibition of Artists of the Sewanee Area, Art Gallery of the University of the South, identifes Handly as the artist. Housed in a giltwood frame. Sight – 32 1/2" H x 28 1/4" W. Framed – 39" H x 34 1/2" W. Provenance: The estate of Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Caldwell, Nashville, Tennessee, acquired from the estate of Gus Baker. Biography (from the Colonial Dames Tennessee Portrait Project, which has inventoried this painting): Avery Handly was born in Nashville in 1913 and died in Winchester, Tennessee in 1958. He graduated from the Wallace University School and Vanderbilt University and received his first art instruction from Ella Cantrell at the Watkins Institute in Nashville. Later he studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute and Grant Wood at the University of Iowa. During his lifetime, important one-man shows were held at the Ward Eggleston Gallery in New York City, the University of the South at Sewanee, the Hunter Gallery in Chattanooga, the Centennial Club and Vanderbilt University in Nashville. CONDITION: Very good condition overall with some small extraneous spots of light colored paint, upper left corner, and some light wear with thick lines of paint loss where canvas meets stretcher. Painting is slightly loose in frame. Frame has 3 1/2" L. loss to upper left edge. Blacklighting revealed no restoration.