LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on linen canvas

Measurements:

17.99 in. (45.70 cm.) (height) by 12.01 in. (30.50 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed, titled, dated and inscribed 'oil on canvas. 18' x12' canvas' in ink, upper stretcher bar verso

Provenance:

the artist, New York; Kenkeleba Gallery, New York; private collection, Houston This elegant painting comes from the latter part of Eldzier Cortor's decades-long series celebrating the form and beauty of African-American women Cortor painted such figures in his Classical Composition and Classical Study series beginning in the 1960s and continued through the 2000s Beyond his early academic training at the Art Institute of Chicago, these paintings show the influence of his study of African sculpture, 19th-century French painting, and his travels to the Sea Islands and West Indies Unlike his social realist counterparts, Cortor investigated both the formalism and symbolism of the African-American female figure