Beauford Delaney (American/Tennessee, 1901-1979) pastel on wove paper bust-length portrait of a bearded man with vibrant blue eyes and piercing stare. Set against a mottled green background, the composition is enlivened by the artist's use of swirling linework to create a network of electric blue forms that seem to radiate from the sitter's eyes–accentuating his facial features and bust before spilling into the background. Along with the warm orange, pink, and yellow tones describing the sitter's skin, this blue is echoed subtly in the clothing and background through layers of applied color. Unsigned. Beauford Delaney Estate Stamp verso. Housed in a modern, rusticated gray wood frame with exposed gilt and white mat. Sheet: 25 1/2" H x 19 5/8" W. Frame: 31 3/4" H x 25 3/8" W. Provenance – Estate of Beauford Delaney, Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, court-appointed administrator. Note: Modernist artist Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. An apprentice to artist Lloyd Branson, Delaney was encouraged by his mentor to study art in Boston. In 1929 he traveled to New York and established himself as a prominent artist of the Harlem Renaissance. There he gained the attention and admiration of well-known writers and artists such as James Baldwin, Georgia O'Keefe, Alfred Stieglitz, and many others. Delaney experimented throughout his career with a wide variety of styles, including his personal brands of realism, fauvism, post-impressionism, and abstract expressionism. His departure from New York to Paris in 1953 also marked his transition from figurative compositions to abstractions with a focus on color and light. Numerous portraits by Delaney, such as this pastel drawing, demonstrate the artist's fauvist tendencies in regard to his use of vibrant, non-local color for expressive effect. Additionally, the penetrating stare and psychological intensity of this pastel suggests the influence of modernist portraiture by luminaries like Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse that the artist would have viewed in museums in Boston, New York, and Paris.

PROVENANCE: Estate of Beauford Delaney, Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, court-appointed administrator.

CONDITION: Condition is very good. Creasing and breaks in the bottom center quadrant, the largest being a 5/8" puncture with loss, have been repaired by the art and paper conservator Alvarez Conservation Services. With faint creasing and pinhole puncture to upper-right corner. Alvarez Conservation Services' pre-treatment condition report is available to the winning bidder.