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Lot Essay
“Paint is the only weapon I have with which to fight what I resent.” -Charles White
Charles White’s Preacher (Reverend Man) is an important early painting that displays the prodigious talent of an artist who would go on to be one of the most influential painters of his generation. As his former pupil and mentee, the artist Kerry James Marshall has declared, White was “… a true master of the pictorial art… nobody else has drawn the Black body with more elegance and authority” (K. J. Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” in S. K. Oehler & E. Adler (eds.), Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 15). This painting epitomizes White’s most important subjects, which monumentalize and empower members of the Black community so often ignored by other artists. Included in White’s critically acclaimed 2018 retrospective organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, Preacher (Reverend Man) is the embodiment of White’s remarkable dexterity in drawing enhanced with the riveting color and intensity created through his rarer use of the tempera medium.
Painted in 1940, when the artist was just 21 years old, the subject of this highly accomplished work looms large, his imposing physical frame excluding all extraneous details from the composition. Dressed in a red shirt, brown pants and matching waistcoat, any religious regalia normally associated with a man of God is omitted, apart from the leather-bound book he holds in his hands. Even this object bears no obvious religious affiliation, thus any meaning given to the painting is inferred only by the title afforded to it by White. The hands which hold the book are the most remarkable feature of this painting; larger than life, their outsized, gnarled appearance imbues their owner with a sense of honesty and respect. The man’s face draws attention right up to the extreme edge of the composition, his soulful eyes and furrowed forehead forming the most strikingly expressive element of the painting. From slavery to the Great Migration, Black preachers played an important role in the community: they acted as seers interpreting the significance of events; as pastors calling for unity and solidarity; and as messianic figures provoking the first stirrings of resentment against oppressors. Clearly a favored subject of White’s, the Whitney Museum of American Art holds a work on paper Preacher from 1952.
“…nobody else has drawn the Black body with more elegance and authority.” -Kerry James Marshall
(K. J. Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” in S. K. Oehler & E. Adler (eds.), Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 15).
Charles White’s portraits are important depictions of the Black figure in early 20th Century American art, and from the very beginning of his career White dedicated himself to portraying the history of the Black community. From celebratory murals such as The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America (1943, Hampton University) to heart-wrenching paintings such as There Were No Crops This Year (1940), White gave a voice to poor, rural, and Black Americans and their often-forgotten communities. “Paint is the only weapon I have with which to fight what I resent,” he said. “If I could write I would write about it. If I could talk I would talk about it. Since I paint, I must paint about it” (C. White, quoted by A. Barnwell, Charles White, San Francisco, 2002, p. 3).
1940, the year Preacher (Reverend Man) was painted, marked a pivotal point in White’s career. It was during this year that he first received national exposure after being featured in article in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, a Harlem-based publication that gave voice to African-American literary, political, and visual expression. Featuring the work of a group of young, Black artists, the author of the article, Willard Motely, singled out White as the “best draughtsman” of his generation, noting the artist’s admiration for the work of Rubens and El Greco. It was also the year that he completed work on his first public mural, the powerful Five Great American Negroes (1939-40, Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Howard University). “1940 established a positive momentum for the young artist and set the tone for his career,” writes art historian Andrea Barnwell, “afforded him increasing exposure, and positioned him to have a productive and lucrative professional career… With his vision, passion, and consistent focus on socially relevant themes, and distinctive style, White became one of America’s most accomplished draughtsman” (A. Barnwell, Charles White, San Francisco, 2002, p. pp. 11-12). Here, this draftsmanship is enhanced beyond the artist’s more typical charcoals through the colors of his thoughtful execution in tempera.
In 1940, White’s work was also included in Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro (1851-1940) held at Chicago’s Tanner Art Gallery. It was the most comprehensive survey of African-American art to date and White received several distinguished honors, including having his work featured on the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Nearly 80 years later in 2018, Preacher (Reverend Man) itself was featured in the seminal retrospective organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, and which later traveled to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This critically acclaimed exhibition contained works which, according to the New York Times critic Holland Cotter, were created by an artist with the “Hand of an angel, the eye of a sage” (H. Cotter, “Charles White Was a Giant, Even Among the Heroes He Painted,” New York Times, October 11, 2018, online [accessed: 10/15/2025]).
to being a highly accomplished artist, White was also a generous and inspirational teacher and mentor to many younger artists. One of his most well-known pupils was Kerry James Marshall, currently the subject of his first major European retrospective at London’s Royal Academy. Marshall enrolled at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in the 1970s and his time under White’s tutelage left a lasting impression on him. “The wisdom he dispensed to many inspiring artists who gathered around him was always straightforward: do your work with skill and integrity, everything else is superfluous” (K. J. Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” S. K. Oehler & E. Adler (eds.), Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 15). Other artists who were pupils of White included David Hammons and Faith Ringold; White also developed a lifelong friendship with the photographer Gordon Parks and together they explored the South Side of Chicago, often taking the same people and scenes as their inspiration.
The quiet solemnity with which Charles White portrays his subject in Preacher (Reverend Man) makes this an outstanding example that demonstrates the artist’s reputation as one of the most accomplished draughtsman and painters of his generation. Writing in the catalogue for his 2018 retrospective, Ilene Fort, Curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art succinctly summed up the magic of White’s art, “His art spoke to and about the Black experience while demonstrating, promoting, and honoring African Americans’ dignity and history” (I. S. Fort, “Charles White’s Art and Activism in Southern California,” in S. K. Oehler & E. Adler, Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 123).
Charles White’s Preacher (Reverend Man) is an important early painting that displays the prodigious talent of an artist who would go on to be one of the most influential painters of his generation. As his former pupil and mentee, the artist Kerry James Marshall has declared, White was “… a true master of the pictorial art… nobody else has drawn the Black body with more elegance and authority” (K. J. Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” in S. K. Oehler & E. Adler (eds.), Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 15). This painting epitomizes White’s most important subjects, which monumentalize and empower members of the Black community so often ignored by other artists. Included in White’s critically acclaimed 2018 retrospective organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, Preacher (Reverend Man) is the embodiment of White’s remarkable dexterity in drawing enhanced with the riveting color and intensity created through his rarer use of the tempera medium.
Painted in 1940, when the artist was just 21 years old, the subject of this highly accomplished work looms large, his imposing physical frame excluding all extraneous details from the composition. Dressed in a red shirt, brown pants and matching waistcoat, any religious regalia normally associated with a man of God is omitted, apart from the leather-bound book he holds in his hands. Even this object bears no obvious religious affiliation, thus any meaning given to the painting is inferred only by the title afforded to it by White. The hands which hold the book are the most remarkable feature of this painting; larger than life, their outsized, gnarled appearance imbues their owner with a sense of honesty and respect. The man’s face draws attention right up to the extreme edge of the composition, his soulful eyes and furrowed forehead forming the most strikingly expressive element of the painting. From slavery to the Great Migration, Black preachers played an important role in the community: they acted as seers interpreting the significance of events; as pastors calling for unity and solidarity; and as messianic figures provoking the first stirrings of resentment against oppressors. Clearly a favored subject of White’s, the Whitney Museum of American Art holds a work on paper Preacher from 1952.
“…nobody else has drawn the Black body with more elegance and authority.” -Kerry James Marshall
(K. J. Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” in S. K. Oehler & E. Adler (eds.), Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 15).
Charles White’s portraits are important depictions of the Black figure in early 20th Century American art, and from the very beginning of his career White dedicated himself to portraying the history of the Black community. From celebratory murals such as The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America (1943, Hampton University) to heart-wrenching paintings such as There Were No Crops This Year (1940), White gave a voice to poor, rural, and Black Americans and their often-forgotten communities. “Paint is the only weapon I have with which to fight what I resent,” he said. “If I could write I would write about it. If I could talk I would talk about it. Since I paint, I must paint about it” (C. White, quoted by A. Barnwell, Charles White, San Francisco, 2002, p. 3).
1940, the year Preacher (Reverend Man) was painted, marked a pivotal point in White’s career. It was during this year that he first received national exposure after being featured in article in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, a Harlem-based publication that gave voice to African-American literary, political, and visual expression. Featuring the work of a group of young, Black artists, the author of the article, Willard Motely, singled out White as the “best draughtsman” of his generation, noting the artist’s admiration for the work of Rubens and El Greco. It was also the year that he completed work on his first public mural, the powerful Five Great American Negroes (1939-40, Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Howard University). “1940 established a positive momentum for the young artist and set the tone for his career,” writes art historian Andrea Barnwell, “afforded him increasing exposure, and positioned him to have a productive and lucrative professional career… With his vision, passion, and consistent focus on socially relevant themes, and distinctive style, White became one of America’s most accomplished draughtsman” (A. Barnwell, Charles White, San Francisco, 2002, p. pp. 11-12). Here, this draftsmanship is enhanced beyond the artist’s more typical charcoals through the colors of his thoughtful execution in tempera.
In 1940, White’s work was also included in Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro (1851-1940) held at Chicago’s Tanner Art Gallery. It was the most comprehensive survey of African-American art to date and White received several distinguished honors, including having his work featured on the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Nearly 80 years later in 2018, Preacher (Reverend Man) itself was featured in the seminal retrospective organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, and which later traveled to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This critically acclaimed exhibition contained works which, according to the New York Times critic Holland Cotter, were created by an artist with the “Hand of an angel, the eye of a sage” (H. Cotter, “Charles White Was a Giant, Even Among the Heroes He Painted,” New York Times, October 11, 2018, online [accessed: 10/15/2025]).
to being a highly accomplished artist, White was also a generous and inspirational teacher and mentor to many younger artists. One of his most well-known pupils was Kerry James Marshall, currently the subject of his first major European retrospective at London’s Royal Academy. Marshall enrolled at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in the 1970s and his time under White’s tutelage left a lasting impression on him. “The wisdom he dispensed to many inspiring artists who gathered around him was always straightforward: do your work with skill and integrity, everything else is superfluous” (K. J. Marshall, “A Black Artist Named White,” S. K. Oehler & E. Adler (eds.), Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 15). Other artists who were pupils of White included David Hammons and Faith Ringold; White also developed a lifelong friendship with the photographer Gordon Parks and together they explored the South Side of Chicago, often taking the same people and scenes as their inspiration.
The quiet solemnity with which Charles White portrays his subject in Preacher (Reverend Man) makes this an outstanding example that demonstrates the artist’s reputation as one of the most accomplished draughtsman and painters of his generation. Writing in the catalogue for his 2018 retrospective, Ilene Fort, Curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art succinctly summed up the magic of White’s art, “His art spoke to and about the Black experience while demonstrating, promoting, and honoring African Americans’ dignity and history” (I. S. Fort, “Charles White’s Art and Activism in Southern California,” in S. K. Oehler & E. Adler, Charles White: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 2018, p. 123).