The Washington Renaissance

In his catalogue essay for Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America art historian David Driskell ­discusses a 1938 watercolor depicting a sartorially sophisticated black man getting his shoes shined by another more modestly dressed figure. The fashionable client smokes a cigar and sports a pale lemon bowler hat and vest, a winter blue jacket, white gloves and spats, maroon necktie and matching pocket square, striped trousers and dress shirt, and holds a cane. Driskell discusses the work in relation to the cultural capital of (elite) Harlemites: “he represents the ‘city dude’, who was the perennial presence at night spots in Harlem.” ¹ While his reading is perfectly accurate, he neglects the caption that the artist, Palmer Hayden, appends to the image—almost in the manner of an editorial cartoon: “Just back from Washington.”