Beauford Delaney (American/Tennessee, 1901-1979) pastel on paper bust-length portrait of a dark-haired, mustachioed man with purple eyes who wears glasses and a blue-and-white striped tie. Set against a mottled blue, purple, and green background with touches of the same colors present in the man’s face. Unsigned. With Beauford Delaney estate stamp to frame backing. Housed under glass in a modern, frame with white mat. Sheet:  25” H x 18 3/4” W.  Frame: 31 1/2” H x 27 1/2” W. Biographical note: Modernist artist Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. An apprentice to artist Lloyd Branson, Delaney was encouraged by his mentor to study art in Boston. In 1929 he traveled to New York and established himself as a prominent artist of the Harlem Renaissance. There he gained the attention and admiration of well-known writers and artists such as James Baldwin, Georgia O'Keefe, Alfred Stieglitz, and many others. Delaney experimented throughout his career with a wide variety of styles, including his personal brands of realism, fauvism, post-impressionism, and abstract expressionism. His departure from New York to Paris in 1953 also marked his transition from figurative compositions to abstractions with a focus on color and light. In 1978, the year before he died, the Studio Museum in Harlem initiated its Black Master series with a retrospective of his work. His paintings can be found in the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago; the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution, and other major museums.

Central image (apart from edges) in very good condition with bright colors. All corners with pinpoint punctures and all except upper left with loss to extreme tips. Edges with handling wear including creasing and minor tears and losses, especially upper and lower edges and upper left corner. Largest is 1” L to lower center (repaired with archival tape en verso). Lower right corner with 4” L dog-ear crease. Additional pinpoint puncture to lower center edge. Affixed to backing with archival tape.