CHARLES L. SALLÉE, JR. (1911 - 2006)
Swingtime.

Etching and aquatint on cream paper, 1937. 140x178 mm; 5½x7 inches, wide margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Printed by the artist and published by the Federal Works Agency, WPA, Cleveland.

Provenance: private collection, Illinois (1997).

Other impressions of the scarce print are found in the collections of the museum of Howard University and the St. Louis Art Museum.

In 1936, Charles Sallée was the first African-American to graduate from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Sallée was a leader and teacher of the Karamu group in Cleveland, an artist colony for various writers, artists, dancers and actors, which included Hughie Lee-Smith and William E. Smith. He also worked on Works Progress Administration projects from 1935 to 1941. He was initially commissioned to make prints - many of his etchings are now housed in the Cleveland Public Library WPA collection and the Cleveland State University Art Gallery - before joining the mural division. A mural he painted for the Portland Outhwaite Homes, this country's first federal housing project, is a neoclassical portrayal of the expectations and ambitions of Black families moving to Cleveland. Sallée also did WPA-commissioned murals for Sunny Acres Hospital, the Cleveland Municipal Airport, and the Fort Hays Homes in Columbus, Ohio. After service as a cartographer in the Army, Sallée established a career as an interior designer working into the 1980s while continuing to paint - see lot 11.