Carroll Cloar (Tennessee, 1913-1993) signed graphite drawing on vellum, likely a sketch or study for a larger painting, depicting a swarm of butterflies surrounding a figure with a slightly tilted head and one closed eye. Signed "Carrol Cloar" lower left. Unframed. 12" H x 16" W. Biography: Carroll Cloar was known for incorporating nostalgic images from his Southern childhood, often merged with dreamlike motifs, into powerful magic realist scene, and noted that literature, particularly by Southern Gothic writers such as William Faulkner or Eudora Welty, influenced his artistic approach. Cloar graduated from Southwestern College (now Rhodes College) in Memphis, Tennessee, and went on to study at the Memphis Academy of Arts under the artist George Oberteuffer. In 1936, he moved to New York to attend the Art Students League. There, Cloar's achievements earned him a McDowell fellowship which he used to travel across the American Southwest, West Coast and Mexico. Cloar served with the Army Air Corps during World War II and upon his return, he was awarded a Guggenheim traveling scholarship to fund an extended sojourn to Central and South America. Two years later, several of his images were featured in a Life Magazine article titled Backwoods Boyhood, and Cloar's career went on to receive additional national acclaim. By the mid-1950's, Cloar had settled permanently in Memphis, where he produced paintings, often executed in casein tempera and acrylic paints. His works are in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooks Museum of Art, and Library of Congress. In 1993, Cloar's painting, Faculty and Honor Students, Lewis Schoolhouse, was one of six paintings by American artists selected to commemorate the inauguration of President Clinton. (Source: The Johnson Collection/Memphis Brooks Museum of Art). Provenance: Private Knoxville, TN collection, acquired directly from the artist. The artist and his wife were close longtime friends to the consignor's parents.

Overall very good condition, slight creasing to paper noted to upper left corner.