Negro Poet (Portrait of Maxwell Nicy Hayson)
Item
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Artist
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Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
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Title
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Negro Poet (Portrait of Maxwell Nicy Hayson)
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Date
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c. 1920s
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Medium
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Plaster, paint
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Dimensions
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19 ¼ x 6 ½ x 8 1/4 in. (48.89 x 16.51 x 20.95 cm)
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Accession Number
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2006.342
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On View
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Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University
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Description
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Head is attached to a painted plaster base. This is a highly stylized and intricate adaptation. Great attention to detail has been paid to the waviness of the hair, as well as the rendering of the ears. The subject appears to have a pronounced forehead and deep set eyes. The pupils of the eyes have been bored out to a hole, which actually makes them look more realistic. Finely detailed nose and lips, as well as sunken cheekbones and a somewhat cleft chin make this gentleman an exquisite piece of sculpture. There is a neck included, as well, which comes to a point in the front, giving the sculpture somewhat of a "pedestal" look.
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Accrual Method
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Exhibition History: In Danforth's "Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller" exhibition, summer 2012. Danforth's "Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Special Collection Re-installation", March 2016 Collection was gifted to the Danforth in 2006. Unfortunately they sat uncatalogued for close to 10 years. It took until an IMLS grant awarded in 2015 through 2016 for this collection to be catalogued and put into the collections database. - Rachel 2021 Date changed from before 1947 to c. 1920s from research done. It is believed, but not confirmed, to have been inspired by Hayson's article in the Twentieth Century Magazine in 1910 by the same title The Negro as a Poet. Hayson, by the same magazine, was described as '...one of the most discriminating, if indeed not the leading critic among the scholarly colored men of New England'. Finding inspiration and inspiration from his article, with herself being an artist, she could have made this busts of Hayden out of respect for his work highlighting the struggles, but also the accomplishments and humanity of Africans in America. From Judith Kerr's 1986 thesis, Maxwell was a frequent visitor to the Fuller House in Framingham. Bust was sent to Howard University's 1961 exhibition on the opening of New Vistas in American Art.
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Provenance
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Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust Part of the Estate of Meta V. W. Fuller from 1968-2001. In the collection of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2001-2006
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Credit
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Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust
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Tombstone
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Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Negro Poet (Portrait of Maxwell Nicy Hayson)
c. 1920s
Plaster, paint
7.6 x 8.4 x 7.25 in.
