Description: Oil on canvas portrait painting by South Carolina artist Jervey Herbert Blair (Am., 1920-1970) depicting a young African American Gullah Geechee woman.18 x 16” painting is unframed and unrestored. The paint losses aren’t ‘active flaking’. Recommend cleaning, fill, inpaint (should be less than 2%), varnish, then framing.This painting is from the late 1930’s. It’s Charleston Renaissance style and WPA era, so, academic Impressionism with a Modern flair. There weren’t a lot of options in SC at the time, so figure the artist trained under August Cook at Converse College in Spartanburg or Catharine Phillips Rembert at the University of South Carolina.Jervey Herbert Blair was in World War II (which started in 1939). I know that he got married in Virginia, but lived in SC. He wasn’t killed in that war, but he died at age 50 in 1970 when the Vietnam war was going on.To find out more, you’d have to pay the site ‘Ancestry’ to access info -- for now, I’ve posted a picture of what I can see free on that site. He’s listed under ‘casualties’ in the Dep’t of Veterans Affairs file. Maybe he was ‘career military’ and died in Vietnam.August Cook was a major South Carolina painter and his auction record, for the only painting to come to market by him, is just 480 dollars. What happened? Well, people want artwork that looks like the painting offered here, and that Cook painting was a portrait of an old white man.This painting has the look of an Elizabeth O’Neill Verner picture (but better), and that’s desirable. The thing is, it’s always a compromise. In the real-life art auction world, Verner’s work can sell for 40K, for a pastel, since she wasn’t really a painter in oils. People would rather have an oil than a pastel, but it’s a non-oil or nothing from her, and something is better than nothing.What we have here is the case of a great painter who went off to war as a young man in his prime, and it seems he had to trade in his paint brush for a M1 Garand. Maybe other paintings by him will surface in time. For now, this is all we have by this artist and I think that makes it special beyond just ticking all the right boxes, i.e. Southern portrait, African American, Charleston Renaissance, etc. CHECK MY FEEDBACK AND BUY WITH CONFIDENCE! *** 20+ years of happy customers on eBay *** Please see my other eBay listings for more great items.Message me to arrange for combined shipping on multiple purchases.
Price: 2200 USD
Location: Pitman, New Jersey
End Time: 2025-01-10T23:19:54.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Size: Medium (up to 36in.)
Region of Origin: US
Artist: Jervey H. Blair
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Style: Impressionist
Material: Oil, Canvas
Time Period Produced: 1925-1949
Personalize: No
Type: Painting
Features: Signed, One of a Kind (OOAK)
Subject: Ethnic, Portrait, Women
Culture: African American
Year of Production: ca. 1939
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
Painting Surface: Canvas
Unit of Sale: Single-Piece Work
Date of Creation: 1900-1949
Width (Inches): 16
Color: Multi-Color
Height (Inches): 18
