Albert Alexander Smith Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Albert Alexander Smith Art Value Price Guide

Oct. 03, 2024
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) My Bunk.
Est: $15,000 - $25,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) My Bunk. Oil on linen canvas, circa 1930. 540x648 mm; 21¼x25½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Inscribed "Sketched in Meuse-Argonne near Clermont, Nov. 4, 1918" in oil, lower left recto. Inscribed "Size 25 ½ IN. x 21 IN, Title 'My Bunk'" in oil across the verso. Provenance: Albert Alexander Smith; Alfred Renforth Smith, father of the artist (1940s); Reverend Frederick Rickford Meyers, Detroit, MI (1950s); private collection, Michigan (2023). Exhibited: Exhibit of Fine Arts of American Negro Artists, Harmon Foundation, New York, 1931. This painting is part of an incredible trove of artworks by Albert Alexander Smith recently discovered in a large steamer trunk. It belonged to his father Alfred R. Smith who worked as his son's agent in New York. In the 1950s, Alfred Smith shipped this trunk to the Rev. Frederick R. Meyers of Detroit, a fellow World War I veteran and friend of Albert Alexander Smith who had become a minister. The undisturbed trunk was recently purchased from a storage facility and unpacked for the first time seventy years later. This extraordinary painting is a depiction by Albert Alexander Smith of his World War I bunk, a recollection of his military service in France during World War I. Born and raised in New York, Smith began attending the National Academy of Design, becoming the school's first African American student in 1915 and won multiple awards. In 1917, during World War I, Smith enlisted in the US Army. He served for two and half months overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces in France in the fall of 1918. Smith was in the trenches on the frontline in Nazaire and Clermont in 1918. He also served in the US Army's 807 Pioneer Band, a Black military band formed in 1918 in New York, and was honorably discharged in July of 1919. After his discharge, he returned to his studies at the National Academy of Design. In 1981, the Musee du Temps Banscon, France acquired Albert Alexander Smith's World War I sketchbook with beautiful pencil drawings from the fall of 1918. It includes a sketch of this bunk in Clermont, dated Nov. 11, 1918, with the names of his bunkmates.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 03, 2024
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Church, Caen, France.
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Church, Caen, France. Lithograph, circa 1930. 203x127 mm; 8x5 inches. full margins. Signed in ink, lower right. Numbered 2/50 in ink, lower left. Titled in ink on the mat. Provenance: Albert Alexander Smith; Alfred Renforth Smith, father of the artist (1940s); Reverend Frederick Rickford Meyers, Detroit, MI (1950s); private collection, Michigan (2023). Exhibited: Harmon Foundation, New York, with the label on the frame back. This scarce print is part of an incredible trove of artworks by Albert Alexander Smith recently discovered in a 1920s large steamer trunk. It belonged to his father Alfred R. Smith who worked as his son's agent in New York. In the 1950s, Alfred Smith shipped this trunk to the Rev. Frederick R. Meyers of Detroit, a fellow World War I veteran and friend of Albert Alexander Smith who had become a minister. The undisturbed trunk was recently purchased from a storage facility and unpacked for the first time seventy years later.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 03, 2024
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Untitled (Funeral Procession, Florence).
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Untitled (Funeral Procession, Florence). Etching printed in brown on cream wove paper, 1922. 159x235 mm; 6¼x9¼ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 2/75 in pencil, lower margin. Inscribed "April/22 Florence" in pencil on the frame back. Provenance: Albert Alexander Smith; Alfred Renforth Smith, father of the artist (1940s); Reverend Frederick Rickford Meyers, Detroit, MI (1950s); private collection, Michigan (2023). With a typed label on the frame back, "Work by Albert Alex Smith, 116 Rue Lamarck, Paris, France, Arr XVIII, American Agent, Alfred R Smith, 229 East 75th St, Manhattan", and a handwritten exhibition number 12 on the glass. This scarce etching is part of an incredible trove of artworks by Albert Alexander Smith recently discovered in a 1920s large steamer trunk. It belonged to his father Alfred R. Smith who worked as his son's agent in New York. In the 1950s, Alfred Smith shipped this trunk to the Rev. Frederick R. Meyers of Detroit, a fellow World War I veteran and friend of Albert Alexander Smith who had become a minister. The undisturbed trunk was recently purchased from a storage facility and unpacked for the first time seventy years later.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 03, 2024
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Bilbas, Spain.
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Bilbas, Spain. Oil on linen canvas, 1927. 508x610 mm; 20x24 inches. Signed, dated and titled in oil, lower right. Provenance: Albert Alexander Smith; Alfred Renforth Smith, father of the artist (1940s); Reverend Frederick Rickford Meyers, Detroit, MI (1950s); private collection, Michigan (2023). Exhibited: Exhibit of Fine Arts of American Negro Artists, Harmon Foundation, New York, 1930, with the exhibition number label "29" on the stretcher bars verso. Illustrated: Fine Arts Exhibit of American Negro Artists, Harmon Foundation, p. 11. This artwork is part of an incredible trove of artworks by Albert Alexander Smith recently discovered in a large steamer trunk. It belonged to his father Alfred R. Smith who worked as his son's agent in New York. In the 1950s, Alfred Smith shipped this trunk to the Rev. Frederick R. Meyers of Detroit, a fellow World War I veteran and friend of Albert Alexander Smith who had become a minister. The undisturbed trunk was recently purchased from a storage facility in Michigan and unpacked for the first time seventy years later. Albert Alexander Smith was, after Henry Ossawa Tanner, the embodiment of the early 20th century African American expatriate artist. After graduating from the National Academy of Design, Smith moved to Paris in 1920. Over the next 20 years, he worked and traveled throughout France, Holland, Italy and Spain, making a living as a blues and jazz musician, while developing a large body of etchings, lithographs and paintings. His landscapes focused on the architecture and peoples of European cities, particulary busy market and street scenes. Smith is also one of the few known African American printmakers working in the early 1920s. He found a patron in New York collector and dealer Arthur Schomburg, who ordered works from Smith for his own collection and for resale. Smith later gained further recognition with his admission to each of the annual Harmon Foundation exhibitions of African American art in New York from 1928 - 1933. Smith died on April 3, 1940, in Paris, France, at the age of 44. Leininger-Miller pp. 224-225.
Swann Auction Galleries
Sep. 19, 2024
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896-1940) Untitled (Baptism).
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896-1940) Untitled (Baptism). Watercolor, circa 1930. 217x280 mm; 8½x11 inches. Signed lower right. Provenance Private collection, New York.
Swann Auction Galleries
Sep. 14, 2024
Albert Alexander Smith, 1896-1940, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Est: $1,000 - $2,000
Albert Alexander Smith 1896-1940 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1922 etching on cream wove paper 10 x 7-3/4 inches (sheet) signed in plate lower left, numbered #12 in pencil, left margin
Black Art Auction
Jun. 20, 2024
Print, Albert Alexander Smith
Est: $800 - $1,200
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940), "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor," 1922, etching on cream wove paper, signed in plate lower left, numbered #12 in left margin, sheet: 10"h x 7.75"w, overall (with mat): 20"h x 16"w
Clars Auctions
May. 17, 2024
Print, Albert Alexander Smith
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940), "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor," 1922, etching on cream wove paper, signed in plate lower left, numbered #12 in left margin, sheet: 10"h x 7.75"w, overall (with mat): 20"h x 16"w
Clars Auctions
Oct. 19, 2023
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Etching on cream wove paper, 1922. 254x194 mm; 10x7 5/8 inches, full margin. Frame watermark. Numbered "#12" in pencil, lower left. This portrait of British-Sierra Leonean composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is part of a 1922 series of prints by Albert Alexander Smith which celebrate people of African descent. Here Coleridge-Taylor is pictured with his best known composition "The Song of Hiawatha," which was later adapted by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Alexander Smith's series includes etchings of Alexandre Dumas, Phillis Wheatley, Paul Lawrence, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Swann Auction Galleries
Jun. 04, 2022
Albert Alexander Smith, 1896-1940, Sunday-Southern US
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Albert Alexander Smith 1896-1940 Sunday-Southern US 1930 lithograph 7 x 9-3/4 inches Signed and numbered 14/100 in pencil
Black Art Auction
Jun. 04, 2022
Albert Alexander Smith, 1896-1940, Paris Street Scene
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Albert Alexander Smith 1896-1940 Paris Street Scene 1930 Etching 9-1/2 x 6-1/2 inches signed and numbered in pencil 5/50
Black Art Auction
Sep. 18, 2021
Albert Alexander Smith (American/French, 1896-1940), Temptation
Est: $800 - $1,200
Albert Alexander Smith (American/French, 1896-1940), Temptation lithograph, 1930, pencil signed, titled, inscribed, and numbered 3/100 lower margin, alternate title is Southern Blacks, matted and framed. Image size 7 1/4 x 10 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 13 x 16 1/8 in. This rare lithograph is by African-American artist, Albert Alexander Smith. Smith had a dynamic career at the beginning of the twentieth century, and his artwork is prolific and diverse. He was a talented studio artist and jazz musician who spent time in New York and Paris. He made artwork that in the 1920s and 30s appealed to many white audiences - such as the work offered here with overt racial stereotypes - as well as streetscapes throughout Europe like the Madrid scene offered in the previous lot. He also completed a number of portraits of great black historic leaders, including RenÃ© Maran and Paul Robeson. Smith's career ended when he died suddenly at the age of forty four. His art is present in many significant national and international collections. Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina Additional high-resolution photos are available at www.lelandlittle.com
Leland Little Auctions
Sep. 18, 2021
Albert Alexander Smith (American/French, 1896-1940), Une Rue, Madrid (Street Scene, Madrid)
Est: $800 - $1,200
Albert Alexander Smith (American/French, 1896-1940), Une Rue, Madrid (Street Scene, Madrid) etching and drypoint on laid paper, pencil signed and numbered 4/50 lower margin, also with title in ink, matted and framed. Platemark 9 3/4 x 6 5/8 in.; Frame dimensions 15 3/8 x 12 1/8 in. African-American artist Albert Alexander Smith had a dynamic career at the beginning of the twentieth century, and his artwork is prolific and diverse. He was a talented studio artist and jazz musician who spent time in New York and Paris. He completed streetscapes throughout Europe like the etching offered here, as well as prints that in the 1920s and 30s appealed to many white audiences, such as the work offered in the following lot with overt racial stereotypes. He also completed a number of portraits of great black historic leaders, including RenÃ© Maran and Paul Robeson. Smith's career ended when he died suddenly at the age of forty four. His art is present in many significant national and international collections. Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina Additional high-resolution photos are available at www.lelandlittle.com
Leland Little Auctions
May. 22, 2021
Albert Alexander Smith, 1896-1940, Plantation Melodies
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Albert Alexander Smith 1896-1940 Plantation Melodies 1923 etching 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches (image) 13 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches (sheet) signed and titled in margin Provenance: private collection, Bloomington, Indiana Illustrated in The Crisis in 1920. REF: New Negro Artists in Paris , Theresa Leininger-Miller This is a very rare print. To our knowledge, it has never been offered before at auction.
Black Art Auction
May. 22, 2021
Albert Alexander Smith, 1896-1940, untitled, Men Clearing a Stone
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Albert Alexander Smith 1896-1940 untitled, Men Clearing a Stone c. 1925 watercolor on paper 9 x 12 inches signed Provenance: private collection, Paris (originally purchased at the artist's estate sale)
Black Art Auction
May. 22, 2021
Albert Alexander Smith, 1896-1940, Puente de San Martín Bridge, Spain
Est: $8,000 - $10,000
Albert Alexander Smith 1896-1940 Puente de San Martín Bridge, Spain 1926 oil on canvas 25 x 39 1/2 inches signed, dated, and inscribed, "Toledo" (Spain) Provenance: This work was in a private collection with another painting (Road to La Carolina) by Smith bearing a label of Kiluna Farm, Long Island, NY. Smith's father worked at Kiluna Farm for many years as a chauffeur for Ralph Pulitzer, son of publisher, Joseph Pulitzer.
Black Art Auction
Oct. 08, 2019
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Temptation
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Temptation Lithograph, 1930. 185x260 mm; 7 1/4x10 1/4 inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 26/100 in pencil, lower margin. A very scarce lithograph by Albert Alexander Smith, a talented jazz musician and artist, who moved to Paris in 1920 after graduating from the National Academy of Design in New York. Despite his technical skill, Smith would occasionally create such scenes with racial stereotypes for a white American and European audience. Smith also made a series of portrait etchings of great black leaders, probably at the request of his patron Arthur Schomburg. His artwork was also featured on the covers of the periodicals Crisis and Opportunity. Smith is one of the few known African-American printmakers known working in the early 1920s. Other impressions of this print are in the collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Library of Congress. Theresa Leininger-Miller pp. 232-34.
Swann Auction Galleries
Jan. 24, 2019
Albert A. Smith. "Selling Pigs..." etching
Est: $500 - $700
"Selling Pigs in Normandy," (American,, 1896-1940). Etching, ed. 1/50, pencil signed "Albert A. Smith" lr, image size 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 in., unframed
Alex Cooper
Mar. 02, 2018
Albert Alexander Smith (American 1896-1940), Via Quirinale, Rome, Signed watercolor on paper
Est: $800 - $1,200
Albert Alexander Smith (American 1896-1940) Via Quirinale, Rome Signed Albert Smith l.l. and inscribed with title and A souvenir/of Rome/from the artist/Albert Smith/to Lois Jones on matting Watercolor on paper; apparently in good condition. Framed.* Sight size: 9 x 7 in (22.9 x 17.8 cm)Property of Various Owners
Weschler's
Oct. 06, 2016
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Market Place, Nice.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Market Place, Nice. Etching on cream wove paper, 1925. 197x130mm; 7 3/4x5 1/8 inches, full margins. Signed and titled in ink, lower margin. Another impression of this scarce print, entitled Au Bout du Marché (Nice, France), was sold at Swann Galleries on February 13, 2014.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 06, 2016
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) A Street in Rome.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) A Street in Rome. Etching on cream wove paper, 1923. 235x159 mm; 9 1/4x6 1/4 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower margin. Titled and numbered 29/50 in ink, lower margin. Illustrated: Leininger-Miller, Theresa. New Negro Artists in Paris, p. 216, fig. 101. Albert Alexander Smith, a talented musician and artist, moved to Paris in 1920 after graduating from the National Academy of Design in New York. Smith was one of the few known African-American printmakers working in the early 1920s. Leininger-Miller p. 210.
Swann Auction Galleries
Dec. 05, 2015
Albert Alexander Smith, (American, 1896-1940), Southern Scene at Night c. 1930, oil on canvas, 25" x 30"
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940) Southern Scene at Night c. 1930 oil on canvas signed 25" x 30"
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Feb. 13, 2014
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Au Bout du Marché (Nice, France).
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Au Bout du Marché (Nice, France). Etching on cream wove paper, circa 1920s. 197x130mm; 7 3/4x5 1/8 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 3/75 in ink, lower margin.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 14, 2013
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Spinning a Yarn.
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Spinning a Yarn. Pencil and graphite on paper, 1930. 171x254 mm; 6 3/4x10 inches. Signed in pencil, upper right * Etching on cream wove paper, 1930. 165x241 mm; 6 1/2x9 1/2 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Signed and numbered 10/50 in pencil, lower margin. Provenance: the estate of the artist, France; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 195 (as Scène de Vendanges), November 7, 1991; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York (2000); John Axelrod, Boston (2001); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011). Exhibited: African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, January 13 - March 4, 2000. Illustrated: African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, p. 51. After graduating from the National Academy of Design in New York, Albert Alexander Smith was one of the few known African-American printmakers working in the early 1920s. Through the 1930s, Smith made many etchings, including a series of portraits of great black leaders at the request of his patron Arthur Schomburg, as well as lithographs of other Southern scenes, such as Spinning a Yarn. His artwork was also featured on the covers of the periodicals Crisis and Opportunity at the time. Leininger-Miller pp. 210-11.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 14, 2013
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Spinning a Yarn.
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Spinning a Yarn. Oil on linen canvas, 1930. 500x650 mm; 19 3/4x25 1/2 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Signed and titled in ink on upper stretcher bar, verso. Provenance: the estate of the artist, France; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 195 (as Scène de Vendanges), November 7, 1991; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York (2000); John Axelrod, Boston (2001); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011). Exhibited: African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, January 13 - March 4, 2000. Illustrated: African-American Art, 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, p. 50. Only the second oil painting by this expatriate artist to come to auction in the U.S., Spinning a Yarn typifies Albert Alexander Smith's work. This is one of his more colorful depictions of popular music and dance--an American genre scene for audiences both in France where he was living at the time, and for collectors back in the U.S. The year before, in 1929, Smith won the Harmon Foundation's bronze medal for both his paintings and prints. As Theresa Leininger-Miller points out, the depictions reflect his experiences in Paris as a professional banjo player, and imagined settings from a rural American South that he knew little about. Smith's figures often reflected stereotypes of African Americans, but he painted in a sophisticated, learned style, "warm shades of brown and gold--in the manner of Rembrandt and Velàzquez, artists whom Smith admired," and whose work he had studied in his travels throughout France, Italy and Spain. Leininger-Miller p. 229.
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 18, 2012
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Untitled (Madrid Street Scene).
Est: $12,000 - $18,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Untitled (Madrid Street Scene). Oil on canvas, 1926. 750x1000 mm; 29 1/2x39 1/4 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed "Madrid" in oil, lower left. Provenance: private collection, Paris. This untitled Spanish view is an exciting European discovery--it is one of Smith's largest landscapes, and one of only a few of his known surviving European canvases. Albert Alexander Smith was, after Henry Ossawa Tanner, the embodiment of the early 20th century African-American expatriate artist. After graduating from the National Academy of Design, Smith moved to Paris in 1920. Over the next 20 years, he worked and traveled throughout France, Holland, Italy and Spain, making a living as a jazz musician, while developing a large body of etchings and paintings. According to Theresa Leininger-Miller, Smith spent extensive time traveling through Spain in the first half of 1926--to Seville, Bilbao and Madrid, where he studied the works of Velázquez and Murillo at the Prado Museum. He painted many landscapes, including market and busy street scenes over the next two years. However, in the U.S., Smith gained more notice at the Harmon Foundation for producing portraits of anonymous European "types"--peasants, beggars, musicians. Leininger-Miller pp. 224-225.
Swann Auction Galleries
May. 07, 2012
SMITH, Albert A. 1928 Etching "Along the Seine."
Est: $600 - $900
Signed and dated in the plate upper left and signed in ink lower right. Numbered 2 in an edition of 50. Titled in ink lower left. Albert Alexander Smith, African-American - New York, 1896 - 1940. Smith was the first African American to study at the National Academy of Design, had extensive training in printmaking and was likely the first African-American to produce an etching. From a Scarsdale, NY home. Dimensions: plate - 7 1/8" high x 5 1/2" wide. Condition: Good. Paper slightly toned but a strong impression. Not examined out of frame.
Clarke Auction Gallery
Dec. 17, 2011
Albert SMITH (1896-1940) Parvis des arènes de las
Est: €5,000 - €6,000
Albert SMITH (1896-1940) Parvis des arènes de las Ventas. Huile sur toile. Signée, datée 26 et située en bas à gauche. 65 x 100 cm
Leclere - Maison de ventes
Dec. 04, 2011
Albert Alexander Smith (French/American,
Est: $1,000 - $2,000
Albert Alexander Smith (French/American, 1896-1940) "Place de la Ville, Cannes" and "Ponte Vecchio," 1922, pair of lithographs, largest: 10" x 7", both pencil signed, one dated, one titled in image, framed
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Oct. 16, 2011
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH [AMERICAN 1896-40],
Est: $300 - $500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH [AMERICAN 1896-40], WATERCOLOR, TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE [HAITIAN HERO]: Albert Alexander Smith, noted black artist, 1896 New York - 1940 Paris. Toussaint L'Ouverture [1743 1803] was the leader of the Haitian Revolution against the French. After an engraving by Maur. Not framed.
DuMouchelles
Aug. 14, 2011
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH, 1896-1940, WATERCOLOR,"
Est: $300 - $500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH, 1896-1940, WATERCOLOR," 12" X 9", W. C. HANDY, MUSICIAN: Not framed." First black graduate of National Academy of Design. Handy was a composer 1873 - 1958," father of Blues music. Smith lived and died in Paris.
DuMouchelles
Jun. 12, 2011
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH, 1896 - 40, WATERCOLOR, 12"
Est: $300 - $500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH, 1896 - 40, WATERCOLOR, 12" X 9", PORTRAIT OF IRA ALDRIDGE: African American artist, lived in Paris. Portrait of Ira Aldridge, leading Shakespearian actor at London of the 19th.c. Not framed.
DuMouchelles
Feb. 23, 2010
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Harriet Tubman.
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) Harriet Tubman. Drypoint on cream wove paper, circa 1920-22. 255x195 mm; 10x7 3/4 inches, full margins. France watermark. Numbered #11 in pencil, lower margin. A good, dark impression with rich burr of this very scarce print. Albert Alexander Smith, a talented musician and artist, moved to Paris in 1920 after graduating from the National Academy of Design in New York. Smith was one of the few known African-American printmakers working in the early 1920s. According to Leininger-Miller, while he was in Paris, Smith made a series of portrait etchings of great black leaders, probably at the request of his patron Arthur Schomburg; in addition to this image of Tubman, he made portraits of Phillis Wheatley, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass and Bishop Richard Allen. His artwork was also featured on the covers of the periodicals Crisis and Opportunity at the time. Leininger-Miller, pp. 210-11.
Swann Auction Galleries
Dec. 06, 2009
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940)
Est: $1,500 - $2,000
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940) "Sunday, Southern U.S.," 1930, lithograph, 7.25" x 10", pencil signed and numbered, edition of 100, unframed
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Dec. 06, 2009
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940)
Est: $1,500 - $2,000
Albert Alexander Smith (American, 1896-1940) "Temptation," 1930, lithograph, 7.25" x 10.25", pencil signed and numbered, edition of 100, unframed
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Feb. 17, 2009
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) "Via Quirinale," Rome.
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 - 1940) "Via Quirinale," Rome. Watercolor over pencil, circa 1938. 230x177 mm; 9x7 inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto. Titled in pencil, verso. Signed, titled and dedicated "A Souvenir of Rome from the Artist...To Löis Jones" in ink on the mat. Provenance: the artist, Paris; Löis Mailou Jones, Washington, DC; Céline Tabary, Washington, DC; private Maryland collection. With Tabary's name and Washington, DC address inscribed in ink on the back of the frame. Albert Alexander Smith befriended Löis Mailou Jones during her first stay in Paris in 1937-38, when she studied at the Académie Julian. Céline Tabary was a French classmate of Jones who quickly became both an interpreter and close friend of hers. She and Tabary both traveled to Rome in the summer of 1938 before Jones returned to the U.S. to resume teaching at Howard University. Albert Alexander Smith moved to Paris in 1920 after graduating from the National Academy of Design School in New York. Smith traveled throughout Europe and drew many views of European cities. Smith is one of the few known African-American printmakers working in the early 1920s. He found a patron in New York collector and dealer Arthur Schomburg, who ordered works from Smith for his own collection and for resale. Benjamin pp. 29 and 31; Leininger-Miller, pp. 232-34.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 06, 2007
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 -1940) Two lithographs.
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
ALBERT ALEXANDER SMITH (1896 -1940) Two lithographs. Sunday--Southern U.S, 1930. 183x253 mm; 7 1/4x10 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Signed and numbered 10/100 in pencil, lower margin * Temptation, 1930. 185x260 mm; 7 1/4x10 1/4 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Signed and numbered 27/100 in pencil, lower margin. Very good impressions of these scarce prints. Albert Alexander Smith, a talented musician and artist, moved to Paris in 1920 after graduating from the National Academy of Design in New York. Despite his technical skill, these artificial scenes of racial stereotypes show the artist catering to a white American and European audience. Smith could not resist the temptation of the commercial rewards of such work, and the elitism of European society. Smith is one of the few known African-American printmakers known working in the early 1920s. Theresa Leininger-Miller, New Negro Artists in Paris, ill. 115, pp. 232-34.
Swann Auction Galleries