#N4-021
Ca. 1930s
Pencil on paper, ca. 22.5x15 cm (9 x 6 in). With pencil caption on the lower margin “Curt Schmidt.” Smudge in the corner of one drawing, but otherwise near fine.
Historically interesting drawings of African Americans in Alabama created by Curt Schmidt (ca. 1876-1963), a Hamburg-born artist who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Schmidt was active in both his native Germany and later in Alabama, where he became known for his "African American genre work" (AskArt).
One drawing depicts a laborer wearing a hat and smoking a pipe, striding forward with a full sack (presumably of coal) slung over his shoulder. He is accompanied by a pair of goats and set against a backdrop of fenced, modest clapboard dwellings. The second work represents a contrasting scene in which a well-dressed man empties a bucket of coal into a large sack held by two women, with children, a carriage, and a clapboard structure arranged in the background.
