Pastel on paper, signed at lower left, presented under glass with a silk mat and gilt frame.

SS 13 x 22.5 in.; DOA 25 x 34 in.

From the Collection of Barbara Boney Campbell, Tarboro, North Carolina

Born in rural Edgecombe County, NC, Hobson Pittman moved to Pennsylvania in 1918. After several solo shows in Philadelphia, he was represented in the 1933 exhibition titled Painting and Sculpture from 16 American Cities held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A celebrated regionalist, Pittman exhibited extensively throughout his lifetime and beyond.

Pittman was known especially for his depictions of quiet rooms, writing “rooms are wonder for me—I like rooms and doors and windows—Mystery shrouds them all—mystery not revealed or explained...” John Canaday, the late Art Editor of the New York Times, reveled in Pittman's interiors as being both "nostalgic and visionary," seemingly at once "still peopled by the remembered presences of romantic personages."

The arrangement of furniture before a yawning window with balustrade, bears a striking similarity to The Lovers, a circa 1940 oil painting in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. One can even make out the shadow of a figure's profile above the undulating sofa back through the blue floor screen.

Good estate condition - not examined out of the frame.

$2,000 - 4,000