Guy Pene Du Bois (American, 1884-1958).

Oil on canvas-laid board painting depicting a nude woman sitting on a bed and gazing downward. Signed and dated 1933 along the lower right. The artwork is housed in a simple gilded frame. Guy Pene du Bois was born in 1884 to a French family living in New York. When he was fifteen years old, he enrolled in the New York School of Art, where he studied alongside other notable painters, including his friend Edward Hopper. In 1905, he moved to Paris to paint and exhibit modern Parisian scenes of men and women existing in public spaces. Du Bois moved back to New York after a year in France, and he was hired as a police reporter and illustrator for the New York American. He was not passionate about journalism, but he had a knack for writing, so he became an art critic. As time went on, he had little motivation to paint, so he continued writing art and music criticism for numerous publications. In the 1920s, du Bois moved back to France and finally found inspiration to paint. His oil paintings focused on the human form; du Bois liked to observe and paint subjects of varying social classes. After several years of painting French society, he returned to America and taught art while still painting and writing art criticism until he died of cancer in 1958.

Provenance: Collection of Bruce Dayton & Ruth Stricker Dayton, Minnesota.

Unframed; height: 20 in x width: 16 in.
Framed; height: 24 1/2 in x width: 20 1/2 in.