Lawrence Beall Smith (1909-1995)

Corner in Carolina

Details

Lawrence Beall Smith (1909-1995)
Corner in Carolina
signed and dated '42/Lawrence Beall Smith' (lower right)--signed again, dated '1941-'42' and inscribed with title (on the reverse)
oil on masonite
20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted in 1941-42.

Provenance

Senator William Benton, New York (Encyclopedia Britannica Collection).
Estate of the above; sold, Sotheby's, New York, 26 September 1990, lot 183C.
Private collection, acquired from the above.
Gift to the present owner from the above.

Literature

The Encyclopedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting, Chicago, Illinois, 1946, p. 112.

Exhibited

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, International Exhibition, 1943.
Philadelphia, Pennyslvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 139th Annual Exhibition, January 23-February 37, 1944, no. 226.

Lot Essay

Lawrence Beall Smith wrote of the present work, "Corner in Carolina was painted in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from notes taken on the subject six months before while in Wilson, North Carolina. In company with Aaron Bohrod, Peter Hurd and Paul Sample I had been sent south by a tobacco company to see the tobacco country and industry. I have always felt a strong pull toward [African American] subject matter, and this Saturday afternoon dress parade before a freakish bit of southern architecture caught my eye afore a day spent in the tobacco warehouses nearby." (as quoted in The Encyclopedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting, Chicago, Illinois, 1946, p. 112)

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