Twelve (12) Joseph Delaney (Tennessee/New York, 1904-1991) drawings. 1st item: Crayon on brown paper drawing depicting a New York street scene. Unsigned. Housed under plastic in a carved wooden frame. Sight – 15 3/4″ H x 11 3/4″ W. Framed – 17″ H x 13″ W. 2nd item: Pencil on green paper drawing titled “Field Ensemble Field Bag Field Hat” depicting a woman in a suit and hat and a cross body bag holding the leash of a small dog in a New York street scene. Unsigned. 13 1/2″ H x 9 1/2″ W. 3rd item: Pencil on paper drawing depicting the stern of a ferry with several passengers. Unsigned. 11 1/8″ H x 15 1/8″ W. 4th item: Pencil on paper drawing depicting the portrait of a woman in a hat. Unsigned. 19 1/8″ H x 12 5/8″ W. 5th item: Pencil on paper drawing depicting the portrait of a man. Unsigned. 18″ H x 12″ W. 6th item: Pencil on paper drawing depicting a group of nudes. Unsigned. 17″ H x 14″ W. 7th-12th items: Six (6) crayon on three ring binder paper drawings depicting female nudes in various poses and one still life depicting a television set. Unsigned. Hammermill Bond watermarks, visible to surface of five (5) drawings. 8 5/8″ H x 11 1/8″ W. Provenance: The Estate of Ougust Delaney, Knoxville, TN. Biography (courtesy of Frederick C. Moffatt): Joseph Delaney was born in Knoxville in 1904. 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. Note: Delaney and Haley began a friendship sometime in the 1940’s. In Haley’s “Shadowland of Dreams” he writes: “Through him (his friend George Sims) I met other struggling artists like Joe Delaney, a veteran painter from Knoxville, Tennessee. Often Joe lacked food money, so he’d visit a neighborhood butcher who would give him big bones with morsels of meat and a grocer who would hand him some wilted vegetables. That’s all Joe needed to make down-home soup. Another Village neighbor was a handsome young singer who ran a struggling restaurant. Rumor had it that if a customer ordered steak, the singer would dash to a supermarket across the street to buy one. His name was Harry Belafonte. People like Delaney and Belafonte became role models for me. I learned that you had to make sacrifices and live creatively to keep working at your dream. That’s what living in the Shadowland is all about”. Additionally, Delaney was named artist-in-residence at The University of TN, an appointment facilitated by his friend Alex Haley. CONDITION: 1st item: Overall good condition with 1 1/4″ tear, areas of loss, largest 1/4″ x 1 1/2″, edges of sheet. 1/2 x 2 1/4″ area of dampstaining, lower right corner. 2nd item: Overall good condition with areas of dampstaining, largest 1″ x 3/4″, scuffs, and creases, surface of sheet. 3rd item: Overall good condition with surface scuffs. 4th item: Overall good condition with 1 7/8″ x 5 3/4″, to top right of sheet (does not affect drawing). Tears, largest 2 3/4″, scuffs, to edges of sheet. 5th item: Overall good condition with scuffs, creases, top left corner. 4 1/4″ x 3″ area of loss, lower right corner. 6th item: Overall good condition with 1/4″ tear, lower left corner, areas of toning/acid burn, top right corner, creases, and surface scuffs. Drawing does not fill entire sheet. 7th-12th items: Overall good condition with surface scuffs, tears to three ring holes. Areas of toning/acid burn, largest 6 1/2″ x 3/4″, foxing spots, surface of drawing depicting a group of nudes. Television set drawing does not fill entire sheet.