Attributed to Albert Ernest Beanie Backus, it does not have a COA. Medium: oil canvas, "Florida", 17 x 14 inches. Provenance: private owner.

Biography: A painter whose career was almost entirely focused on Florida landscapes, skyscapes, people and botanics, Albert Backus is regarded as the Dean of Florida Painters. He first received attention for his still-lifes, especially hibiscus, and later for his landscape and figure works of the Florida backwoods country.Although he was basically self-taught, taking summer classes at the Parsons School in New York City, he gave lessons to numerous artists. Today, among persons knowledgeable about American folk art, Albert Backus is known as the most influential person of The Highwaymen, a group of 1950s African-Americans who are arguably the best known of the Florida folk-art painters. Using art expression as a way of working through their despair at having no future beyond their jobs as workers in citrus groves and packing houses, The Highwaymen sold paintings out of their vehicles. Described as creating "hybrid versions" of the painting style of Backus, (Neal) members of the group, whose leader Alfred Hair was a student of Backus, were also inspired by his personal advocation of equal rights and racial tolerance.Albert Backus was born in 1906 in Fort Pierce, Florida, a small and sparsely populated town where his parents had moved two years prior to his birth. At this time, the Fort Pierce economy was totally oriented to fishing and agriculture, and this pre-urban development culture is reflected in many of the Backus paintings.At an early age, Backus, known by the family nickname of "Beanie", showed art talent. During his early years, he worked with watercolors, painting small pictures of tropical landscapes, portraits of friends and basically anything that would amuse the local townsfolk.His first major painting job was doing backdrops in a local Fort Pierce theatre. Other commissions followed; however, the money he received was never much until he was encouraged to leave high school to help support his family.In 1931, at the height of the Great Depression, Backus, encouraged by his family and friends, had a one-man show, which, to his great surprise, proved very successful. "He later remarked, 'I couldn't believe that people were willing to pay me $10 for a painting, what with us having such a bad economy and all!' Modesty was almost always a Backus trademark.During this period, he supplemented his income with a variety of jobs in local businesses and continued to paint, primarily with heavy use of a palette knife in an impressionist style inspired by Claude Monet. He especially loved storm scenes with tumultuous skies, which gave his work a sense of great vigor.His painting style later became more representational but it was written that throughout his career there was "hardly a cloud formation, plant or animal species that Backus could not name" (Backus Museum) and that his favorite times of day to paint were early mornings and late afternoons.Albert Backus received his first national recognition in 1939 in an exhibition sponsored by IBM and the Golden Gate Exposition committee. Called "Art Across the Nation", the exhibition was composed of entries that artists across the country regarded as their finest work. In Florida, Backus won the competition to determine which artist would be represented with his work titled "And Then There Was Light". It received special recognition at the national exhibition, which for Backus was the turning point of focusing his life on his art.In 1942, Backus joined the Navy, and aboard ship and later when recuperating from wounds in a naval hospital, continued to sketch and paint as much as possible. When the war was over he did paintings of the Florida Everglades that became some of his trademark work. He received commission work, especially from a winter visitor named Arthur De Yo, but few persons to that time outside of Fort Pierce knew of the talents of Albert Backus. In 1949, he decided to try to enhance his reputation and began exhibiting and selling his work in Miami, which much increased his name recognition.In 1951, Backus married Patsy, who died several years later at age 29 during open-heart surgery. He, apparently devastated and with no children, changed from being a moderate drinker of alcohol to excessive, and problems of alcoholism and depression began that affected the remainder of his personal life.Although, rewards from his art talents continued, he, at the urging of friends concerned about his grief-ridden lifestyle, spent time in the Caribbean in order to regain mental stability. In 1957, he set up a studio in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and remained there for several years until local politics forced him back to Florida.In the next two decades his career skyrocketed, continuing through the 1970s despite his ever-increasing eyesight problems and despite his dependence upon an ever-nearby bottle of rum.The Backus studio in Fort Pierce became a gathering place for aspiring artists and also for friends seeking stimulating conversation, for Haitian refugees, troubled local kids whom he housed, and for bus-loads of tourists. He hated "pleasant" conversation, stating that "I'd rather be a liar than a bore". (Backus Museum). Reportedly he could hold forth on almost any topic ranging from personal finance, through politics, philanthropy and religion. He spoke of the virtues of Christianity but alternated between atheism and agnosticism. He was known for his annual Halloween parties, always integrated by race and age, and ever featuring the recent artwork of his students known as the Backus Brats.In those years, his lifestyle was a combination of personal creativity, gregariousness and modest day-to-day existence with old appliances, and only one air conditioned room, his studio where he most likely was playing recorded music of Duke Ellington. Backus donated generously to charities and paid for the academic art education of numerous young people he thought deserving.Of this ever-outreaching man and much-admired artist, Unitarian minister, Charles Lelly, wrote in 1969: "Here is a man who gives of himself, of his time, and of his love. He gives to the rich, to the poor, and to the in-between. He takes in the destitute or homeless and takes care of their needs until they are able to stand alone. He never knows whether another man is white, black, yellow or red. He only knows that man is a person. He has the courage to be firm when necessary, yet is always tender...understands and loves, but rarely passes judgment...puts himself last and everyone else ahead." (Backus Gallery)Albert Ernest Backus died at age eighty four of heart failure on June 6, 1990. His studio, at the corner of Avenue C and Second Street in Fort Pierce, is maintained as the Backus Gallery where the doors to his "gabled house with the turquoise shutters are wide open, a sure sign that the artist is in residence. . . .On a typical day, you could find the man with the shock of silver hair and the guyabera shirts in one of three places: In the kitchen cooking; sitting on a wrought-iron chaise lounge reading the paper; or standing at his easel, preserving Florida's vanishing beauty on canvas (Backus Museum)His work can be found in the LBJ Texas library, the rooms of the Georgia State Supreme Court and the A.E. "Bean" Backus Gallery and Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida, which is the location of his studio and much of his collection of paintings and original sketches including the earliest known work, painted in 1918 and the unfinished painting on his easel at the time of his death. Also at the Backus Gallery and Museum is a collection of work by The Highwaymen.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Mint