작품 상세

(ART.) Family photographs and other papers of artist Albert Alexander Smith. Various places, 1902-circa 1950s 5 family photographs, other ephemera; various levels of wear.  Albert Alexander Smith (1896-1940) was raised in New York City, son of Afro-Bermudan immigrants. He studied at the National Academy of Design in 1915, served in World War One, and then returned to France in 1920 to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He remained there for much of the next 20 years, exhibiting frequently in New York. He was in Sallanches in the French Alps when he died of "congestion of the brain" in April 1940. Offered here are: FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS.  Real Photo postcard, 5¼ x 3¼ inches; creased, worn, glue remnants on verso. Apparently shows Smith in his Army uniform, dated 1917 in manuscript but otherwise uncaptioned. The face is a match for his 1920 passport photo. Photograph, 10 x 7¼ inches to sight, taped into mat; repaired tear, staining. Apparently depicts Smith; captioned in image "Megéve, Haute Savoie, Dec-Mars 1935," very near the town where he died in 1940. Photograph, 6 x 7¾ inches, captioned "Central Park, January 1902, Curtiss Auto No. 32", mounted in frame; apparently shows Smith's father as a young chauffeur in the dawn of the automobile age. Photograph, 7¼ x 12¼ inches, mounted in frame, with label reading "Hunting up north in Canada for moose, Winter 1903"; apparently shows Smith's father with friends? Photograph, 4½ x 6½ inches to sight, in period frame, captioned "Lizzie and Alfred Smith, 50th Anniversary, 12/8/42," showing Alexander's parents dancing at a party. OTHER EPHEMERA:  Group of World War Two ration tickets issued to Alfred R. Smith for his 1936 Ford. Tag for the steamer trunk in which this material was found, reading "Rev. Ricksford Meyers, 2019 St. Antoine St., Detroit, from Paris, 151 W 131st St., NYC, val. 100.00." This Detroit address was at that time occupied by St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, where Meyers served as rector from 1940 to 1965. References: Leininger-Miller, "New Negro Artists in Paris," pages 202-240; "St. Matthew's Episcopal Church" (history published circa 1970). Copies of both included.