Vintage African American Charles Louis Smith Oil Painting Signed Portrait Billie Holliday

Vintage Harlem Renaissance School Charles Louis Smith African American Artist Oil Painting Signed, dated 1946, "Portrait of Billie Holliday", 60 x 42",64 x 46" framed.
Charles Louis Smith (1915 - 1986) was active/lived in California. Charles Louis Smith was born in 1915 in North Carolina to Giles and Carrie Smith. He moved to Philadelphia around 1925, went into the Army around 1941. Charles married Evelyn D. Bradley on December 10th, 1943, in Richmond City, Virginia. He moved to the California Bay area area mid to late 1960's and dies in 1986. He had one brother and one sister. A book of his poems and drawings was published in 1986 entitled "Charles, The Man". In 1952 he did the cover for his sister Lucy Smith's book of poems entitled "No Middle Ground". He had an exhibition in New York in the early 1990's. Charles Smith is known for African-American portrait and figure painting, celebrities. Charles Louis Smith was an activist artist living in San Francisco. He can be traced to his notable work at the Battle for International Hotel in San Francisco. A black artist, Smith helped the many Chinese and Filipino immigrants with their nine-year long anti-eviction campaign.

64 x 46 x 1 in