Hughie Lee-Smith

Hughie Lee-Smith was born in Florida but settled in Ohio, studying art at the Cleveland School of Art. In 1970, he worked as artist-in-residence at Howard University where he oversaw a series of murals on Black history. In his painting, Boy Reading, the boy stands at the edge of a remote and rocky mound with a large body of water separating him from the scenery in the far background of the painting. During an era where painters often chose abstraction as their preferred style, Lee-Smith’s sentimental and quieter portrayals of loneliness in his work is often compared to the realist paintings of Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967).

Title: Boy Reading
Artist: Hughie Lee-Smith (1915 – 1999)
Date: n.d.
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: Image size: 26 ¼ x 36 inches; Framed: 30 ½ x 40 inches
Accession Number: H77.68

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