Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2015.

Portrait of James Baldwin

Artist Beauford Delaney (American, 1901 - 1979)

CultureAmerican

Date1965

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions25 1/2 × 21 1/4 in. (64.8 × 54 cm)
Overall, Frame: 32 1/4 × 28 1/4 × 2 1/2 in. (81.9 × 71.8 × 6.4 cm)

SignedSigned and dated in red paint in the lower left corner: "BEAUFORD DELANEY 1965."

InscribedVerso of the canvas is inscribed in red: "53 rue Vercingétorix."

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2015.28

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 222

DescriptionPortrait of American novelist and Civil Rights advocate James Baldwin (1924-1987). Oil on canvas painting, 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches in size. It is framed in a plain brown wooden frame with dimensions of 26 3/4 x 22 3/4 inches, 1 1/2 inches deep. The painting is signed and dated in red paint in the lower left corner: BEAUFORD DELANEY 1965. There are exhibition labels on the backing board from the Studio Museum in Harlem and art handlers André Chenue and Ollendorff Fine Arts. The verso of the canvas is inscribed in red: 53 rue Vercingétorix.
Label TextBeauford Delaney American, 1901–1979 Portrait of James Baldwin, 1965 Oil on canvas Intense yellow brings a sacred and redemptive light to Beauford Delaney’s portraits of people he admired, as seen here framing the writer and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin (1924–1987). Though Delaney often exhibited with Harlem Renaissance artists, he preferred the company of intellectual circles in New York’s Greenwich Village. His abstract, colorful, and highly textured paintings found many admirers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Baldwin, who was only a teenager when they first met in 1940. Delaney became a spiritual mentor to the budding writer based on their mutual struggles against poverty, racism, and homophobia, and this portrait, created 25 years later, celebrates their lifelong creative friendship. Museum purchase 2015.28 Exhibition History"Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective," The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, 1978-79 (cat. no. 18). 1996: "Explorations in the City of Light : African-American Artists in Paris, 1945–1965," The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Chicago Cultural Center; New Orleans Museum of Art, 1996 (colorpl. 48). 2002-03: "Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow," Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Anacostia Museum and Center for African History and Culture of Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA., 2002-2003 (cat. no. 19). Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, February 7-May 10, 2020; extended through October 25, 2020.Published ReferencesRichard A. Long, _Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective_ (New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1978) cat. no. 18. _Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945–1965_ (New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1996) cat. no. 47, pg. 80. Richard J. Powell, _Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow_ (Atlanta, GA: High Museum of Art, 2002) cat. no. 19, pg. 50. Patricia Sue Canterbury, _Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris_ (Minneapolis, MN: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2004) illustrated pg. 78 (fig. 49). Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley, _Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power_, (London: Tate Publishing, 2017), pg. 116.