JOSEPH DELANEY (1904 - 1991)
Untitled (Still Life with Flowers and Chinese Plate).
Oil on canvas board, 1940. 762x559 mm; 30x22 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left.Provenance: acquired at Swann Galleries December 15, 2015; private collection, New York.This unusual still life by Joseph Delaney is a beautiful study in a limited palette. Delaney moved from his native Tennessee to New York in 1930 at the age of 26, where he studied at the Art Students League with Thomas Hart Benton. In 1932, he exhibited in the first Washington Square Outdoor Art Show and continued to work as a sketch artist there. From 1934 to 1940, Delaney worked for the WPA on projects in New York City including the Index of Design for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pier 72 mural, and the Story of the Recorded Word mural at the New York Public Library.