JAMES LESESNE WELLS (1902 - 1993)

Profile No. 2

Linoleum cut on Japan paper, 1929. 203x178 mm; 8x7 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Signed, titled and numbered 5/35 in pencil, lower margin.

<i>Profile No. 2</i> is a wonderful example of James Lesesne Wells' block prints from the Harlem Renaissance; his interests in both African and modern art are seen in this portrait. Wells exhibited the very similar print <i>Primitive Girl</i> in the <i>Exhibition of the Work of Negro Arts</i> at the Harmon Foundation in New York in 1931. We have not found another record of this very scarce print.