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22 HAYWOOD “BILL” RIVERS (1922 - 2002)
The Birds
.
Oil on linen canvas, circa 1948-51. 560x320 mm; 22x13 inches.
Provenance: the artist, Paris; James and Laura M. Kleege, NewYork; thence by descent to a private
collection; private collection, NewYork. Inscribed with the artist’s name, titled and Laura Kleege’s
name and NewYork address in ink on stretcher bars.
James Kleege, NewYork painter and printmaker in StanleyW. Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris, befriended
Haywood “Bill” Rivers during his time in Paris.The family supplied this image of the artist painting
this work.
Haywood “Bill” Rivers left his family as a young teen and moved to Baltimore. He later moved to
NewYork and studied at the Art Students League from 1946-48. Rivers left for Paris in 1949 and
joined the cooperative Galerie Huit. He then studied at the École du Louvre in Paris from 1950-
52. Rivers went on to receive many awards for his work, including the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship
in 1948 and the John Hay Whitney Fellowship in 1952. His two solo exhibitions—in 1948, at the
Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, and in 1983 at the Ann Weber Gallery in Georgetown, ME—
bookend a long, distinguished career.Today, his works are found in the collections of the Baltimore
Museum of Art and La Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris. The Baltimore Museum’s
The Drape Maker
and
Tailor Shop
, both acquired from his 1948 exhibition, were included in the traveling museum
exhibition,
A Force for Change:African American Art and the Rosenwald Fund
.
[10,000/15,000]
Courtesy of the Kleege Family.