Frank Spencer Budgen (1882-1971): Oil on canvas, a very mov...

Hammer

£3,000

Frank Spencer Budgen (1882-1971):

Oil on canvas, a very moving and sensitive three-quarter length portrait of Jamaican poet and writer Claude McKay (born 1890 died 1948). This relaxed and alluring pose was sensitively painted by Frank Budgen when McKay lived in London with Frank and Francine Budgen c1920-1930, they became lifelong friends sharing their passion of art, poetry and politics, signed Budgen lower right, unframed. 23½ins. x 19½ins.

Claude McKay was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. The Jamaican born McKay moved to New York in 1914 where he wrote ‘If We Must Die’ a widely reprinted sonnet responding to the wave of white on black race riots and lynchings following the conclusion of WWI. Poet and author of five novels, posthumously awarded The Order of Jamaica for his contribution to literature and named National Poet of Jamaica. McKay is regarded as the foremost left-wing black intellectual of his age and his work has heavily influenced a generation of black authors including James Baldwin and Richard Wright.