Oil on Masonite, signed and dated 1954 at lower center, inscribed on the verso, framed.

Frame dimensions 21 1/2 x 46 1/2 in.

Private Collection, New York and North Carolina

By descent from Ethel Novello, New York, New York

Ethel Novello was an art collector and fashion designer in New York City. She specialized in swimsuit design, clothing contestants for the Miss World Pageant, and her designs were featured in various publications throughout her career. Ethel's brother-in-law was a professor in Japan, and through this connection she acquired much of the Asian artwork offered here at auction.

Ethel's family had a long-time presence within the New York entertainment industry. Her mother, Ethel Novello McAssey, was a Broadway dancer. Her uncle was the famous Armando "Toto" Novello, also known as "Toto the Clown." Based in the Bronx, he was a traveling performer and silent film star throughout the early twentieth century.

Merton D. Simpson was a leading Abstract Expressionist artist, a dealer of African Art, and one of the few African American artists to gain recognition from museums in the 1950s. Simpson was also a founding member of the Spiral Group alongside fellow artists Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, and others. This group of African American artists came together to discuss their place as cultural leaders within the Civil Rights Movement.

Simpson was raised in Charleston, South Carolina. He first discovered his penchant for art after he was diagnosed with diphtheria as a young boy and practiced drawing during his stays at the hospital. Simpson went on to study at Cooper Union and New York University, where he immersed himself in the arts and jazz scene. It was during his schooling that he began collecting and selling African Art and established the Merton D. Simpson Gallery. The proceeds from the gallery helped fund his siblings' education.

Drying cracks and craquelure to surface; small paint flake along upper edge of panel; minor rubbing to frame.

$1,000 - 3,000