Rose Piper Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Rose Piper Art Value Price Guide

Sep. 14, 2024
Rose Piper, 1917-2005, Still Life (Paris room)
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Rose Piper 1917-2005 Still Life (Paris room) 1948 ink drawing on cream paper 11-3/4 x 9 inches signed and dated (twice) Provenance: private collection, Oakland, CA This is a very rare work by the artist.
Black Art Auction
Apr. 27, 2024
Rose Piper "Slow Down Freight Train, 1947" Offset Lithograph
Est: $800 - $1,600
Rose Piper (1917–2005) was an American painter known for her colorful and vibrant depictions of rural life
Morgan Auctions
Apr. 04, 2024
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Two Nuns on a Subway Begging Blood Back to Back (Subway Nuns).
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Two Nuns on a Subway Begging Blood Back to Back (Subway Nuns). Oil on linen canvas, 1947. 406x457 mm; 16x18 inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Provenance: acquired from Roko Gallery, Leroy and Elaine Bettis, New York (1947); private collection, New York. Exhibited: Blues and Negro Folk Songs, Roko Gallery, New York, September 28 - October 30, 1947. This important exhibition at the Roko Gallery was the artist's first solo exhibition - this painting was one of fourteen works on display. This painting is an exciting discovery. Piper's prized 1940s paintings are very scarce - we know of four surviving today. Graham Lock wrote about this painting in his chapter "Blues on the Brush: Rose Piper's Blues and Negro Folk Songs Paintings of the 1940s" in The Hearing Eye: Jazz & Blues Influences in African American Visual Art. He describes how unlike the other paintings in this exhibition, Subway Nuns was not based on music but on lines from a contemporary Myron O'Higgins poem, Nuns on the Subway. The relevant lines read "...this way she listens for the gourd / and waits to join the dead who / wander clockwise / begging blood at corners back to back..." Rose Piper was one of the most promising painters in the late 1940s; Charles Alston was a friend and mentor. A graduate of Hunter College, she won consecutive Rosenwald fellowships in 1946 and 1947 - the first allowed her to travel to the South to study blues and other African American musical forms. With critical acclaim for her solo exhibition, and on her second Rosenwald fellowship, Piper travelled to Paris where she took classes at the École des Beaux Arts. She also won first prize in painting at the 7th Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture and Prints by Negro Artist at Atlanta University. Unfortunately, two years later, a number of family crises led Piper to step away from her painting career to become the breadwinner for a family of six. She started her own greeting card company, and then worked as a successful designer in the garment industry. Piper did not returned to painting full time until 1980. Special thanks to Khela Ransier, the artist's daughter, for confirming the authenticity of this painting. Lock pp. 48-64.
Swann Auction Galleries
Nov. 19, 2022
Rose Piper, 1917-2005, Stage Struck
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
Rose Piper 1917-2005 Stage Struck c. 1989 graphite, gouache and marker on brown wove paper 7-1/4 x 5-1/4 inches signed and titled artist's ink stamp verso: Rose Piper, 250 W. 94th St., Apt 7G, New York, NY 10025
Black Art Auction
Jul. 11, 2020
Rose Piper, 1917-2005, Mexican Girl and Boy with Dog, mixed media with watercolor and crayon on paper, 12 x 9 inches
Est: $2,500 - $3,500
Rose Piper 1917-2005 Mexican Girl and Boy with Dog mixed media with watercolor and crayon on paper c. 1950 signed Provenance: The Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art, CA. Literature: The Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art, p. 184. Piper exhibited at the ACA Gallery, and ran in the circle of artists which included Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and a young Jacob Lawrence. Her later exhibitions include: New Images, Hudson Guild Art Gallery,1988; Contemporary African-American Artists, National Arts Club, New York, 1994; and The Fine Art of Textile Design, Cinque Gallery, New York, 1995; Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, 1993,1995. 12 x 9 inches
Black Art Auction
Dec. 15, 2015
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Unbalanced Objects Being Balanced.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Unbalanced Objects Being Balanced. Mixed media on paper, 1978. 360x280 mm; 14x11 inches. Signed, titled and dated "May 78" in ink, upper right. Provenance: collection of the artist; private California collection; private collection, Atlanta. This later surrealist drawing reflects the life struggles of Rose Piper, one of the most promising painters in the late 1940s. A graduate of Hunter College, she won consecutive Rosenwald fellowships in 1946 and 1947 and was associated with painters Charles Alston, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Vaclav Vytlacil. She then received wide critical acclaim for her solo exhibiton Negro Work Songs and Blues at the Roko Gallery in New York in 1947. She also travelled to Paris where she took classes at the École des Beaux Arts and won first prize in the 7th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Negro Art in 1948. In 1952, Piper was forced by financial pressures to work primarily as a designer in the garment industry. When she returned to painting full time in 1980, she returned also to national exhibitions. Her work was included in the the touring museum exhibition, To Conserve a Legacy, American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstraction 1945-75, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, and she is featured in anthologies of African-American art by Leslie King-Hammond, Sharon Patton and Richard J. Powell.
Swann Auction Galleries
Dec. 06, 2014
Rose Piper, (American, 1917-2005), Self Portrait as a Young Stylist, 1978, ink on paper, 17" x 13.5"
Est: $1,800 - $2,500
Rose Piper (American, 1917-2005) Self Portrait as a Young Stylist, 1978 ink on paper signed and dated lower left 17" x 13.5"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Dec. 06, 2014
Rose Piper, (American, 1917-2005), Gathering Sunbeams, 1978, ink on paper, 17" x 13.5"
Est: $1,800 - $2,500
Rose Piper (American, 1917-2005) Gathering Sunbeams, 1978 ink on paper signed and dated lower left 17" x 13.5"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Dec. 06, 2014
Rose Piper, (American, 1917-2005), Young Woman's Blues, c. 1947, oil on canvas, 25" x 30"
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
Rose Piper (American, 1917-2005) Young Woman's Blues, c. 1947 oil on canvas signed; titled and dated on label verso 25" x 30"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Feb. 14, 2013
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) I Know My Robe's Goin' to Fit Me Well. I Tried It On, At the Gates of Hell.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) I Know My Robe's Goin' to Fit Me Well. I Tried It On, At the Gates of Hell. Acrylic on masonite, 1988. 300x228 mm; 11 3/4x9 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower left. Provenance: the artist, with her ink stamp and label on the frame back; Bomani Gallery, San Francisco; John Axelrod, Boston (1994); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011). This is also one of the 10 paintings in the artist's Slave Song Series.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 14, 2013
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Death Went Out to the Sinner's House. Gone and Go with Me.
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Death Went Out to the Sinner's House. Gone and Go with Me. Sinner Cried Out, I Ain't Ready to Go, I Ain't Got no Travelin' Shoes. Acrylic on masonite, 1988. 300x228 mm; 11 3/4x9 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower right. Provenance: the artist, with her ink stamp and label on the frame back; Bomani Gallery, San Francisco; John Axelrod, Boston (1994); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011). This is one of 10 miniature paintings by Rose Piper from her Slave Song Series in which she revisited African-American forms of music--a subject that had once made her early reputation. According to Graham Lock in his essay "Blues on the Brush: Rose Piper's Blues and Negro Folk Spiritual Paintings of the 1940s," Piper showed this group in her second solo exhibition at the Phelps Stokes Fund in New York in 1989--over 40 years after her first solo show. Lock describes how Piper used the lyrics of spirituals for the titles for each work, and was inspired by her reading of John Lovell's book Black Song: The Forge and the Flame. Lock/Murray pp. 61-62.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 08, 2009
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Mostly Dark Things.
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Mostly Dark Things. Pencil on paper, 1982. 460x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left. In 1952, financial and family pressures forced Piper to work as a designer in the garment industry. When she returned to painting full time in 1980, her work was again exhibited nationally and has been included in several touring museum exhibitions. One of her 1940s paintings is the cover illustration for the catalogue for the current Spertus Museum exhibition A Force for Change African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 17, 2009
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) One of these mornings bright and fair goin' to take my wings and cleave the air.
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) One of these mornings bright and fair goin' to take my wings and cleave the air. Acrylic on masonite, 1988. 300x228 mm; 11 3/4x9 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower right. This is the last of the important series of 10 paintings by Rose Piper in her Slave Song Series in which she revisits the theme that made her early reputation. A graduate of Hunter College, she won consecutive Rosenwald Fellowships in 1946 and 1947 and was associated with painters Charles Alston, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Vaclav Vytlacil. She received wide critical acclaim for her solo exhibition Negro Work Songs and Blues at the Roko Gallery in New York in 1947. She also traveled to Paris, where she took classes at the École des Beaux Arts and won first prize back in the U.S. in the 7th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Negro Art in 1948. In 1952, Piper was forced by financial pressures to work primarily as a designer in the garment industry. When she returned to painting full time in 1980, her work was again exhibited nationally and was included in the touring museum exhibition, To Conserve a Legacy, American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstraction 1945-75, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 19, 2008
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) African Dress.
Est: $2,500 - $3,500
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) African Dress. Acrylic and graphite, 1994. 360x280 mm; 14x11 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower left. This drawing is a fitting hommage to Piper's long career as a textile designer and colorist.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 19, 2008
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Unbalanced Objects Being Balanced.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ROSE PIPER (1917 - 2005) Unbalanced Objects Being Balanced. Mixed media on paper, 1978. 360x280 mm; 14x11 inches. Signed, titled and dated "May 78" in ink, upper right. Provenance: collection of the artist; private California collection. This later surrealist drawing reflects the life struggles of Rose Piper, one of the most promising painters in the late 1940s. A graduate of Hunter College, she won consecutive Rosenwald fellowships in 1946 and 1947 and was associated with painters Charles Alston, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Vaclav Vytlacil. She then received wide critical acclaim for her solo exhibiton Negro Work Songs and Blues at the Roko Gallery in New York in 1947. She also travelled to Paris where she took classes at the École des Beaux Arts and won first prize in the 7th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Negro Art in 1948. In 1952, Piper was forced by financial pressures to work primarily as a designer in the garment industry. When she returned to painting full time in 1980, she returned also to national exhibitions. Her work was included in the the touring museum exhibition, To Conserve a Legacy, American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstraction 1945-75, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, and she is featured in anthologies of African-American art by Leslie King-Hammond, Sharon Patton and Richard J. Powell.
Swann Auction Galleries