Henry Faulkner Folk Oil Painting of a Classical Scene

Item Details

Henry Faulkner (American, Kentucky, 1924 – 1981)
Untitled (whimsical interior)
Oil painting on board
Signed to the lower left
Artist’s obituary included in envelope to the verso

This oil painting on board by renowned Kentucky-based folk artist Henry Faulkner depicts a whimsical scene in the bright color and bold strokes that define Faulkner’s work. The scene features a classical cellist wearing a toga and laurel crown, looking into a tiled foyer with Corinthian columns, a potted lemon tree, and staircase that seems to go nowhere. Behind the musician, a couple rendezvous in a cascade of greenery. It is signed to the lower left and presented in a simple wood frame with wire to the verso for hanging.

Faulkner was born in rural Egypt, Kentucky in 1924. An orphan, and listless wanderer, the artist lived a bohemian lifestyle and eventually arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was primarily known. A lifetime of travel took him to Key West, Taormina, Italy, New York, and California where he befriended the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Ezra Pound, and many other literary and artistic dignitaries along the way. Anecdotes abound of his pet goat and oft-recurring subject in his work, Alice, with whom he drove to Florida, took to his gallery openings, and elsewhere. He is remembered as a complicated modernist, who left a body of work in paintings and poetry, and a fond impression by most who met him.

Condition

- slight accretion and discoloration to painting surface; frame rub along edges of board with some paint loss; marks and wear to frame throughout; slight separation of frame corner joins.

Dimensions

- measures frame; visible work measures 22.25" W x 10.25" H.

Item #

ITMG429188