RICHARD DEMPSEY (1909 - 1987)
Untitled (Jamaica).

Oil on board, circa 1965-70. 800x1054 mm; 31 1/2x41 1/2 inches. Signed and inscribed "Jamaica" in ink, lower right.

Provenance: private collection, Washington, DC.

While Richard Dempsey is known primarily as a Washington, DC painter, he traveled extensively throughout his career. In 1951, he became associated with the Washington School with his inclusion in the first Annual Exhibition of the Loïs Mailou Jones & Celine Tabary Studio Group, which also included Delilah Pierce and Alma Thomas. Dempsey traveled through Africa, Colombia, Haiti and Jamaica in the 1950s and '60s, and exhibited in Colombia and Jamaica through the Art in Embassies Program. His work today is found in the collections of Atlanta University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Harriet and Harmon Kelly Collection of African American Art, San Antonio.