Beauford Delaney Abstract at Sotheby's Contemporary Discoveries Sale

On February 12, 2026, Sotheby's Paris will auction a Beauford Delaney abstract work on paper.

Lot 299
Untitled
(1961) Gouache on paper
signed and dated (lower right)
63,9 x 50 cm; 25 x 19 ½ in.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

This work is created in the same style as two works on paper shown in the 2016 Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition mounted by Les Amis and the Wells International Foundation in Paris

Sans titre
(1961) Technique mixte/papier
signed and dated (lower right)
65 x 49,5 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Sans titre
(1961) Technique mixte/papier
signed and dated (lower right)
64 x 49,5 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

as well as a work shown in the 2020 Through the Unusual Door exhibition mounted by the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Untitled
(1960) Watercolor on paper
signed and dated (lower right)
26 x 19 ¾ in.
Knoxville Museum of Art
2014 purchase with funds provided by Brenda and Larry Thompson
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Because the earliest of these works is dated 1960, one can speculate that the 1961 works may have been produced prior to Beauford's life-altering voyage to Greece that July.

The estimated sale price of the work offered by Sotheby's is 8,000€ - 12,000€.

For information about the auction, click HERE.

Fun Facts about Beauford: The Boston Years

Compared to other periods of Beauford Delaney’s life, his years in Boston (1923 - 1929) are the least well documented in the historical record.

Today, in the first of a series of articles that present "fun facts" about him, I am taking a look at this critical period of his adult life.

• Almost immediately upon moving to Boston, Beauford entered into a circle of "high society folks"—White and Black—who would "direct his sociopolitical education." He met and socialized with people such as Mr. and Mrs. William Shakespeare Sparrow (Black), Mr. and Mrs. Bryant (relatives of poet William Cullen Bryant - White), and George and Josephine St-Pierre Ruffin (Black).

• Beauford met writer Countee Cullen in Boston, long before he or Cullen would meet and deeply influence a young James Baldwin. It was Cullen who first introduced to Beauford the idea of going to Paris.

Countee Cullen
1927 R. W. Bullock
Image in the public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons

• Roland Hayes and James Weldon Johnson were two singers that Beauford greatly admired. He had the temerity to introduce himself to both of them after concerts in Boston - Hayes in 1923 and Johnson in 1926.

Roland Hayes
1929 J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs
Image in the public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons

James Weldon Johnson
1932 Carl Van Vechten
Image in the public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons

• Biographer David Leeming reports that Beauford saw Josephine Baker perform in Boston "early in his Boston stay," admired her, and followed her career from that point forward.

Josephine Baker
1927 Photographer unknown
Image in the public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Baker performed in Sissle and Blake's In Bamville (eventually renamed The Chocolate Dandies) in 1924, and the show was staged at Boston's Tremont Theater in June of that year.

• Because of his profound modesty, Beauford turned down several opportunities to serve as a live model for artists in exchange for an opportunity to paint.

Read about Beauford's Boston haunts here:

Beauford in Boston: Copley Square and Black Beacon Hill

Beauford in Boston: Public Garden and Boston Commons

Withdrawn and Working and Thinking...

In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming presents a quote from a letter that Beauford wrote to his friend, Larry Wallrich, on January 8, 1957.

In the letter, Beauford said that he had been

withdrawn and working and thinking these past several months and plan somehow to even withdraw more, as deep introspection and [the] search for me is vitally necessary ....

Upon (re)reading this chapter in the biography, I decided to look at images of the works Beauford created in 1956—the year he moved to his Clamart studio—to see what being "withdrawn and working and thinking" allowed him to produce.

Below are a few examples of his work from that year.

Untitled
(circa 1956) Gouache, watercolor and charcoal on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Untitled (Abstract Circles)
(1956) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Untitled (Ibiza)
(1956) gouache and watercolor
18" H x 11 7/8" W
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Untitled
(1956) Aquarelle on paper
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Untitled
(1956) Gouache on illustration board
PFF Collection
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Beauford at the Artists' Gallery

In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming writes:

By 1948 Beauford was finally recognized as a member of the expressionist movement in New York. He was given a solo exhibit at the Artists Gallery on 57th Street in May. He wrote to Billy Rose in May that the 57th street show meant something special to him because it justified the support by his friends of his "terribly painful efforts to try to be articulate."

Leeming indicates that Beauford's Jazz Quartet was shown at this exhibition. He described it as "an energetic, highly colored depiction of a black jazz quartet dominated by a candy-striped piano played by a woman in an elaborate hat."

Jazz Quartet
(1946) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Burt and Patricia Reinfrank
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

During a recent Internet search, I was pleased to find images of the front and back of an invitation card to Beauford's Artists' Gallery show.

Artists' Gallery Invitation Card - recto and verso
Images reproduced with the permission of Jon Glovin, Fenrick Books 

Fenrick Books is selling this piece of memorabilia. The blurb on the Web page provides the following information about the gallery:

The Artists' Gallery was a non-profit organization that existed from 1936-1962 in various locations. It showed a wide range of artists including Josef Albers, Lyonel Feininger, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hoffmann, Louise Nevelson, etc. It collected no commission from the sale of works, instead relying of financial donors.

Further investigation turned up the following tidbit of information from Getty.edu re: selected dealer archives:

Artists' Gallery, New York. Founded in 1936 by Hugh Stix and directed by Federica Beer-Monti. A nonprofit organization supported by contributions, it exhibited works of artists not represented by a commercial dealer, including Josef Albers and Louis Eilshemius. Closed 1962.

The Getty Website references the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art as its information source.

Upon visiting the archive pages dedicated to the Artists' Gallery, I was only able to find mention of a copy of Henry Miller's The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney among the printed materials in the collection. There may well be a catalog for Beauford's 1948 show and/or papers related to the show in the collection, but one would need to visit the Smithsonian to peruse the six boxes of archived items to find and review them.

I have not been able to find any images of the gallery's façade or interior. The space it occupied is now part of the address of the Four Seasons Hotel.