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ROBERT NEAL (1916 - 1987)
Untitled (Kitchen Still Life, Dayton, Ohio)
.
Oil on masonite board, circa 1940-45. 406x508 mm; 16x20 inches. Signed in oil, lower right.
Provenance: acquired from family descendants of the artist, Colorado; private collection, Colorado.
This charming 1940s still life is only the second artwork by this painter and muralist to come to
auction. A native of Atlanta, Robert Neal was a student of Hale Woodruff ’s and became his studio
assistant at Spelman College, working on the Talladega College Amistad murals in 1939. Neal
transferred Woodruff ’s drawings to the canvas, and then installed the canvases to the walls after
Woodruff had fallen ill. Neal’s signature was even recently found on the verso of the mural canvas
Repatriation of the Freed Captives
, when it was recently restored for the museum exhibition
Rising
Up: HaleWoodruff’s Murals at Talladega College
.