A Second Plaque for Beauford

In April 2014, I posted that the City of Paris approved the mounting of a plaque honoring Beauford in the 14th arrondissement.

Today I bring news of the possibility of a second plaque in the same neighborhood.

If approved, this one would be placed at 20 bis, rue de la Gaîte.

In an interview that I conducted with Beauford's friend Colin Gravois in 2010, Colin talked about a restaurant that was once located at this address. It was called Les Mille Colonnes and Beauford liked to eat there.

Les Mille Colonnes was a renowned dance hall during the 19th century. Documentation of the history of the associated restaurant is sketchy, partly because other sites in Paris operated under the same name.

Postcard - Les Mille Colonnes restaurant
Rue de la Gaîté à Paris, circa 1900
The site is currently occupied by the Hotel Le M. The owner granted permission for the placement of the plaque earlier this year and Les Amis de Beauford Delaney submitted a request to the Préfet de Paris for official approval shortly thereafter. We recently discovered that the dossier was never received by the appropriate office and have relaunched the request. With luck, we'll receive notification of approval in early 2015 and can begin planning for the installation of both plaques.

Beauford's "Citation in Context"

Installation artist Aprille Best Glover sent me an e-mail a few days ago. I quote from her message below:

First thank you for all your content. I have been doing huge amount of research about Paris and I keep bumping into your site (Entrée to Black Paris). If it wouldn’t be too inconvenient, could I ask you for some assistance concerning Beauford Delaney?

What I am working on now is a very large map of Paris (3 meters by 2 meters) built of quotes in the shape of city blocks. The particularity of this map is that each quote is placed over a location that I can trace directly to the person quoted (their home, historical happening, workplace or atelier, for example). I have located what I think are most of the obvious African-Americans in Paris (James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Miles Davis, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Nina Simone, Richard Wright, Angela Davis, Victor Séjour, etc.), hence my stumbling over your site multiple times.

I was wondering if you might be able to give me a direct quote of Beauford Delaney and any addresses inside Paris that are directly connected with his life...

Aprille calls her project "108 Quotes 108 Days 108 Citation 108 Joys." She shared the URL for the Web site in her message: Le Grand Livre de Paris.

I happily prepared a response containing a quote from Beauford, the most important of the addresses where he lived in Paris, and the URL for the Les Amis blog. Before sending it, I visited her Web site and saw that the first person quoted on the site is James Baldwin.

When I sent my reply, I asked Aprille whether she was aware of the deep connection between Baldwin and Beauford. She was not. She sent a return message asking me whether I had written anything about Beauford and volunteered to place a link to an article that speaks of the connection between him and Beauford. She has done just that. At the end of the English text about Baldwin (there is a French translation of it on the page as well), she emphasizes that articles that treat the subject of Baldwin's and Beauford's relationship highlights how personal connection matters.

Aprille's project is not yet finished and the section of the map that contains Beauford's quote is not yet on line. She has graciously allowed me to publish it here (click on the image to enlarge it):

Citations in Context (detail)
© Aprille Best Glover
The quotation that I supplied (from Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney) is as follows:

Time became different--not just an hour by the clock but a mysterious aliveness from the tips of your toes to the top of your head, touching everything and everyone. This began to be Paris for me...

Aprille has placed it in the section of the map where Saint Anne's Hospital is located in the 14th arrondissement.

Swann Auction Galleries October 9 African American Fine Art Auction - Results for Beauford's Works

On October 9th at 2:30 PM, Swann Auction Galleries held an African American Fine Art that featured works from the collection of Richard A. Long (1927-2013). Richard was Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emeritus, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia for many years. He was a dear friend of Beauford.

Of the seven Beauford Delaney paintings that were put up for sale at the event, four were purchased.

The yellow, untitled abstract (Lot 13) fetched the most handsome price - $75,000, including buyer's premium*. Beauford painted this in 1964, which was an exceptionally productive year that culminated in his one-man show at the Galerie Lambert in Paris.

Untitled (Abstraction)
(1964) Oil on linen canvas
406x336 mm; 16x13 1/4 inches
Signed, dated and inscribed "Paris" in oil, verso
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's portrait of Richard (Lot 14) sold for $10,000, including buyer's premium. It was exhibited at the Beauford Delaney retrospective that Richard organized at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1978.

Portrait of Richard A. Long
(1965) Color pastels on cream wove paper
660x508 mm; 26x20 inches
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(Beauford also painted an oil portrait of Richard that is currently on display at the High Museum in Atlanta.)

Kitchen (Lot 17) sold for $5,500, including buyer's premium.

Kitchen
(1970) Watercolor and pencil on cream wove paper
548x450 mm; 21 5/8x17 3/4 inches
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Lot 16, an untitled landscape, sold for $5,250, including buyer's premium. Richard acquired this painting directly from Beauford, who may have painted it during a prolonged trip to the south of France with Bernard Hassell.

Untitled (Landscape)
(1968) Oil monotype on cream wove paper,
laid down to illustration board
548x450 mm; 21 5/8x17 3/4 inches
Signed and dated in ball point pen and blue ink, lower right
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
To see the results for all seven paintings, click here.

For more information, contact Alaina McEachin at .

*At auction, there are two prices--the hammer price, or the price at which the item sells during the auction, and the price with the buyer's premium. All auction houses have a buyer's premium that the buyer pays to the auction house on top of the hammer price. Swann's premium is 25% up to and including $100,000. Swann Auction Galleries now reports the "hammer price" and the price that include the buyer's premium in its online catalog.

Clarke Auction Gallery - Past Sales of Beauford's Art

Clarke Auction Gallery sold two Beauford Delaney works in 2007 and 2008, as illustrated below.

Street Scene
(1950) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Charcoal of a Black Woman (1929)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Ronan (Ron) Clarke, owner of the gallery, immigrated to the United States from Ireland twenty-six years ago. He settled in Harlem and married an African-American woman. He was introduced to African-American art at that time and has amassed a considerable collection of these works. He sells a lot of African-American art at his gallery.

Clarke operated a flea market in Manhattan "twenty some odd years" ago and developed a strong network of contacts that continues to bring him interesting pieces, but he has not had the good fortune to come across much of Beauford's work. He told me that he felt fortunate to have found both paintings and said that they were "estate fresh":

Street Scene was found on the Grand Concourse. Where it originated, no one knows.

Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper girl) came from an African-American woman in the Bronx as well.

Information about the sales can be found on the ClarkeNY.com Web site:

Street Scene

Charcoal of a Black Woman

Street Scene, an oil painting measuring 47" x 36", fetched the highest price of which I am aware for Beauford's work: $176,250.00.