Featured Anyone familiar with Artist Charles Sallee ??

Please help! I picked this up at thrift store. If you are familiar with Charles Sallee work, this looks like a classic Charles Sallee piece. Could this be an original Gouache painting? I have zero experience in this field. So much to learn. What is the difference between gouache and conte crayon?? Thanks in advance!!

 

This looks like it could be conte. Gouache is a dense opaque water color. Conte is like an oily chalk that is compacted into square-sectioned sticks. It's not as loose as charcoal, not as oily as pastel, and comes in a wide range of colors.

Could be a combination of things, but I'm not seeing anything requiring a brush.

This looks like the sort of portrait you'd get from a street artist.

 

I was thinking it looked like the type of thing we did in art class and someone framed theirs.

The eyes aren't looking in the same direction.

 

I agree, it looks like conté. It is skilfully done, with considerable speed, so it could be a street artist.
It is an attractive portrait, beautiful girl, very 60s. Reminds me a bit of Natalie Wood, but I don't think she was Jewish.

It doesn't look like Charles Sallee jr, the style is different, and he specialized in African American subjects.


Some great African American art on this site:
https://www.holmesartgallery.com/new-index/

 

The signature is very different. Charles Sallee jr signature in the lower left hand corner, a different slant, and yours is signed Sallée.

 

I guess my standards of "street portraits" are much higher in New Orleans where the street portrait artists are highly skilled. This one is not.

This appears to be a charcoal sketch, not conte crayon.
Gouache is like water color paints but with more opaque qualities. The colors here are not gouaches, but appear to be colored pastels.

 

Never go to Rome. After seeing Roman street artists, I was glad we don't have them here in the Netherlands. Something to do with permits.

 

@orrbobby, Charles Sallee was my uncle. My cousins and I think this portrait was drawn by his brother, our Uncle Henry Sallee.

 

a probable answer......5 years later.... Yippie !!!!

To all those folks coming here expecting an answer in 24 hours or less.......

chew on this !!!

this site has longevity !!!!!!

thank you , @ADV ......

 

Ok, after giving it a second look 5 years later, I agree the black could be conte crayon and the colors thick pastel. The reason I never thought the colors to be gouche is because the paper is so flat, unlike paper that has had a water based paint applied.

@ADV , welcome! Thank you for clearing up this mystery.
Was your uncle a street portrait artist, or did he do portraits in his home or what?

Always fun to return to a later post. Thank you.

 

Also, what nationality please?

 

@antidiem My uncle, Henry Sallee, was, mostly, a self taught artist. He was Black/African American. (Our family is from Ohio.) Henry made his living as an artist; often traveling through the South to work at fairs as a portrait artist. In his travels through the South, he decided it was safer for him to present himself as a South Asian. His subjects were very diverse. (The portrait, above, of the woman wearing a Star of David necklace, is one example.) In 1967, he traveled to Montreal, Canada for Expo 67. He fell in love with Canada and lived there until he returned to the States to live with family in his final years.

 

Thank you so much for sharing that information. What an interesting life he must have had.

Debora

 

Montreal .....not a bad pick !!