Elwood Peterson lived in Paris for over 15 years, arriving two to three years before Beauford set sail for France in 1953. A classical singer who used GI Bill benefits to train at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, he met Beauford in 1956 through an introduction by their mutual friend, composer Howard Swanson.
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Biographer David Leeming mentions Peterson several times in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney. Several elements in the Beauford Delaney archive now held by the University of Tennessee Knoxville illuminate the relationship between the two men.
Leeming states that Beauford was greatly pleased by a concert in which Peterson performed in Fall/Winter 1962. The archive contains a note handwritten by Beauford, which says "Thursday Elwood Howard" and "concert du next week negro. Beauford wrote "Oct 13," "Dec am centre," and the words "apre [sic] midi" (afternoon) and "evening" on this note, as well as other unrelated information.
The archive also includes Peterson's handwritten invitation to Beauford to "come to the Center to see our opera" and an accompanying envelope postmarked November 21, 1962. In the invitation, Peterson notes that "Howard" (Swanson) has seen the opera and will attend the performance a second time and mentions that he has not yet been able to visit Beauford in his new home (the studio on rue Vercingétorix). He says he'll try to send Beauford a formal invitation to the event.
Photo by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
I found the following quotation in a card Peterson sent to Beauford, most likely during the Christmas season of 1966*:
"You were off galavanting again when I was "called" to teach in California ....
"I pray all is well with you and trust that all works so that we may see each other again next summer. I mean yet to have a Beauford Delaney on my wall!"
In 1967, Beauford painted a portrait of Peterson and gave it to his subject.
(1967) Oil on canvas
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo from Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
According to Leeming, Peterson expressed surprise at the youthful countenance Beauford bestowed on him in the work, to which Beauford replied:
"... when you sing you become eighteen again, and that's what I wanted to capture."
I have not read any correspondence that Beauford addressed to Peterson. But it is apparent from Peterson's notes and letters to Beauford that he held Beauford in high esteem and felt close to him. For several of the writings held in the archive, he used the closing salutation "Bless you" or "Love."
*In September 1966, Jet Magazine reported that Peterson left Paris to accept a position at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
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