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Joseph Delaney (Tennessee/New York, 1904-1991) c. 1940 watercolor on paper mounted to board figural study painting depicting a group of African American figures including a reclining, nude woman, perhaps deceased, surrounded by figures who pray or grieve -possibly an allusion to the Deposition of the Virgin. A woman clad in green carefully pulls a textile over the reclining nude while a grey-haired man’s outstretched arms suggest Christ’s crucifixion. The work also bears some interesting similarities to the Harlem Hospital “Magic in Medicine” mural, 1939, by Charles Alston, with which Joseph’s brother, Beauford Delaney, assisted (ref. Pierce, Lemoine (2004). “Charles Alston: An Appreciation”. The International Review of African American Art (4): p. 33-38. Signed “Jos Delaney,” lower right. Housed behind glass in a painted wooden frame. Board: 16″ H x 16″ W. Frame: 17 3/8″ H x 17 1/4″ W. Biographical note: Joseph Delaney was born in Knoxville in 1904, the ninth of ten children born to a Methodist Minister. He and his older brother, Beauford, discovered their interest in art by drawing on Sunday School cards. In 1930, Joseph left Tennessee for New York where Beauford was also working as an artist, and enrolled in the Art Students League under the tutelage of Thomas Hart Benton and Alexander Brooke. The subject matter he found there, including the city’s landmarks and its people, are the images for which he is best known. In 1986, Delaney returned to Knoxville to live and was artist-in-residence for the University of Tennessee Art Department until his death in 1991. Delaney’s works are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Chicago Art Institute, The Knoxville Museum of Art, and The Smithsonian American Art Museum. (Courtesy of Frederick C. Moffatt)
PROVENANCE: Private Middle Tennessee collection; by descent in the family of Uvaldo Sandoval of Taos, New Mexico (1920-1975).
CONDITION: Paper is glued to board.
