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American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950

American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950
American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950

American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950

For sale is a wonderful charcoal drawing by the American realist artist Alexander Brooke. This wonderful picture features striking African American female ballet dancer. This picture is circa 1950 in age. It comes to us from A private Woodstock NY estate. It depicts a beautiful female African American ballet dancer standing in profile in her dance apparel.

Perhaps she is taking a break during training or rehearsal and the artist captures her at that very moment while looking away. It could be a preparatory sketch for a larger oil painting. We are unsure as to who is depicted here but we're told it may be Janet Collins or Raven Wilkinson who were both pioneers and trailblazers in American ballet and being among the first female African American Ballerinas to perform for major ballet groups in America.

The painting is charcoal and white wash on paper. It is gallery framed and signed by the artist in the lower middle(see picture). Frame - 33" x 25".

Sight - 23" x 17". Paper - 27" x 23". Born in Brooklyn, New York, Alexander Brook was a realist painter, whose works consisted mostly of still-life subjects, landscapes, and figures, often of women. He was very successful in his day, winning second prize to Picasso's first prize at the Carnegie Institute International Exhibition of Modern Painting in 1930. It was at the Art Students League that Brook developed significant relationships with Niles Spencer, Reginald Marsh, Kenneth Hays Miller, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and, perhaps most significantly, Peggy Bacon, whom he married in 1920.

Along with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Brook studied with John C. DuMond, George Bridgeman and Dimitri Romanofski. Within this group lay the foundations of American Realism. Brook was a member of the Society of Independent Artists, who rebelled against the strictures of the National Academy of Design. In 1938 Brook traveled to Savannah, Georgia, there he did some of his most provocative work.

After two years in the South, Bacon and Brook were divorced. Brook later married the painter Gina Knee. During the years 1928 through 1939, Alexander Brook had works in over one-hundred exhibitions, fifteen of which were one man shows. By 1942, Brook had resumed teaching at the Art Students League.

Demand for the artist's work kept him in significant collections, galleries, and museums, including the Downtown Gallery (New York), the National Academy of Design, the Rehn Gallery, the Larcada and the Knoedler galleries. Some feel Brook may have retreated from the art world with the rise of Abstract Expressionism, although a sketchbook that he kept from 1949 to 1951 reveals an active engagement in painting and served multi purposes--a repository for his ideas, an address book, notebook, and travel diary. Of special interest are his notes on watercolor technique. It also includes tips for using new painting tools such as knives, sponges, and razor blades. Most of the sketches in it are of Florida landscapes, which augmented written accounts of his travels.

Many later drawings were inspired by the trip Brook made with his third wife to Europe, where he studied the works of Picasso, Goya and Zurbaran. Brook received awards at the Art Institute of Chicago (1929), the Pennsylvania Academy (1931), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1931), and the San Francisco Art Association (1938). The item "American Realist Alexander Brook.

Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950" is in sale since Monday, June 06, 2016. This item is in the category "Art\Paintings". The seller is "upstatetreasures14" and is located in Kingston, New York. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South africa, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, Saudi arabia, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, China, Thailand, Switzerland, Brazil.

  • Original/Reproduction: Original
  • Medium: Charcoal Gouache Pencil
  • Signed?: Signed
  • Date of Creation: 1950-1969
  • Region of Origin: US
  • Style: American Realist
  • Subject: African American Ballet Dancer
  • Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
  • Size Type/Largest Dimension: Medium (Up to 30in.


    American Realist Alexander Brook. Female African-American Ballet Dancer C1950