Beschreibung:

William Aiken Walker (American/South Carolina, 1839-1921) "On the Road to Natchez", 1883 oil on canvas signed and dated lower left, pencil-titled on stretcher bar, and titled and Trovaioli Painting Conservators, Grand Bay, Alabama stamp en verso. Framed with artist plaque. 12" x 20", framed 17-1/4" x 25-1/4" Provenance: Didier, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, ca. 1972. Exhibited: "The World of William Aiken Walker", Presbytere, Louisiana State Museum, 1972. Literature: Illustrated in Trovaioli, August P. and Roulhac, B. Toledano, William Aiken Walker Southern Genre Painter, Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1972, plate 21. Notes: In 1972, LSU Press published August Trovaioli and Roulhac Toledano's book William Aiken Walker Southern Genre Painter. In conjunction with the publication of their book, the Louisiana State Museum organized the exhibition "The World of William Aiken Walker". Previously in the Collection of Louisiana antiquarian Don Didier Born in Charleston, South Carolina, William Aiken Walker worked as a draftsman during the Civil War creating maps and drawings for the Confederate Engineers Corps. After the war, Walker traveled south and painted scenes of New Orleans and black sharecroppers working in cotton fields. Although these workers were no longer enslaved, Walker’s paintings reflect the poverty, arduous labor conditions, and limited opportunities for the black community in the south at the turn of the century. Walker visited southern resorts, hotels, health spas and cities selling his paintings to tourists and gift shops. He frequently visited New Orleans and could be found painting on the corner of Royal and Dumaine Street.