124
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ERNEST CRICHLOW (1914 - 2005)
Dreams of the Big House.
Oil and collage on canvas, 1989. 1219x914 mm; 48x36 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Provenance: the estate of J. Bruce Llewellyn, NewYork.
This poignant painting is a familiar subject of Ernest Crichlow’s—beginning in the WPA, he
depicted the struggles of African Americans through women and children.With such paintings as
Waiting
, 1965, and
White Fence
, 1967, Crichlow developed his Social Realism to illuminate the
economic and social divisions of the Civil Rights era. His later works, like
Girl with Flowers
, 1979,
and
The Balcony
, 1980, both in the Hewitt Collection of African-American Art, Charlotte, NC, show
a more painterly freedom and a move away from the harsher earlier subjects to more sentimental
images.These images have a grandeur and dignity also found in
Dreams of the Big House
, which is
the largest painting by the artist to come auction.
[20,000/30,000]