A painted portrait of a nude woman with short dark hair, shown from the shoulders up against a muted blue-gray background. The artwork has a textured, painterly style with warm skin tones and a deep blue area at the lower right.

1940s Nude Painting of Seated Woman | Large African American Art

$1,000.00

Here we have a large painting of a seated woman looking straight out of the canvas and holds your eye without blinking. One hand rests on a bundle of patterned cloth. A slice of that same deep blue velvet from her two sister paintings (see in shop). Where the other two figures look away or lose themselves mid motion, she is fully present. Fully aware she is being looked at. Giving nothing away.

The years line up with something real. Chicago in this decade was home to the country's first Black owned community art center, a Bronzeville institution founded through federal arts funding after years of local organizing. Its opening was dedicated on national radio by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941. We have no evidence connecting Schultz to that scene. What we can say honestly: this canvas was painted in the same city, during the same years, that produced one of the great flowerings of American art history. And it treats its subject with a level of presence that plenty of academic nudes from this period do not bother with.

This painting carries extra weight. It is part of a documented trio with a real paper trail back to one Chicago household, not a lone painting showing up with no context at all.

Her sisters are listed separately in our shop: a standing figure against a yellow curtain, a reclining figure across that same blue velvet. Bought together they trace one artist's decade. Three different women. Three different kinds of looking.

The WPA era painting measures 45 1/2” x 19 1/2”. Condition is honest and unrestored. Stable craquelure throughout. Colors still rich and readable. Presented in a simple wood frame consistent with the other two paintings in the set. This is a substantial canvas meant to anchor a room, not fill a corner. The frame is modern and will keep it attached to help for protection during shipping. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.

I ship UPS to street addresses in the continental USA only (no P.O. Boxes). Free shipping on the cool WPA era painting.

Don’t peer away. She holds all the power.