Elbridge Ayer Burbank Creates an Engaging Nap Scene

Published on 16 June 2023, by Carole Blumenfeld

Auction on 21 June 2023 - 14:00 (CEST) - Salle 13 - Hôtel Drouot - 75009

On June 21, Hôtel Drouot celebrates summer with this small, arresting composition full of charm by American painter Elbridge Ayer Burbank, making its debut at auction.

Elbridge Ayer Burbank (1858-1949), Young African-American Boy Holding a Sunflower,... Elbridge Ayer Burbank Creates an Engaging Nap Scene

Elbridge Ayer Burbank (1858-1949), Young African-American Boy Holding a Sunflower, Sleeping on the Back of a Chair (The Sunflower?), 1894, oil on panel signed and dated, 20.2 x 15.2 cm/7.9 x 5.9 in.
Estimate: €10,000/15,000

Painting is at its zenith when it produces images that stand on their own. This small panel could be the subject of a doctoral thesis, but viewers, whatever their knowledge of late 19th-century American political and social history, can instantly grasp what is involved in this delicate moment. The artist turns his model, firmly embraced by Morpheus, into an American version of Greuze's Petit Paresseux (The Lazy Boy) , now in Montpellier's Musée Fabre . Born in Harvard (Illinois) and a graduate of Harvard (Massachusetts), Burbank…

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