Bongo Drummer

Hayward Oubre

about 1960

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Indian, Cheyenne, United States, watercolor on paper
The Twelve, George Biddle, lithograph
A trompe-l'œil (French, “trick the eye”) still life painting consisting of a stretched canvas, painted around all four sides to resemble a rectangular piece of wood cut from a longer plank. The top and bottom edges have a series of lines painted with a thick impasto to resemble the radial grain of a cut board. At the center of the composition is a dark hollow recess covered with a broken pane of glass held in place by nine tack nails, which contains 14 peanuts, functioning as a makeshift peanut dispenser. Tucked behind the pane of glass at the top of the recess is a white paper card which reads “Try One. / S. NIKTA.” “S. NIKTA” is “Atkins” spelled backwards, probably the name of a friend or patron of the artist.
A painting of the Battle of Cherbourg, a naval engagement of the American Civil War that occurred off the coast of Cherbourg, France on June 19, 1864. In the foreground, at lower left, the CSS Alabama, a screw sloop-of-war, founders, listing to the starboard side, with its stern submerged. Confederate sailors clamor to abandon the sinking ship, which is enveloped by smoke, a reach the safety of the lifeboats. In the distance, to the right, the USS Kearsage, a Mohican-class sloop-of-war, floats parallel to the horizon line, with its starboard (proper right) side facing the viewer. White smoke issues forth from a smokestack at the center of the ship and trails left. In the foreground, blue-green water occupies the bottom quarter of the canvas, while in the background, the blue-grey sky—with black, white and grey smoke at right and scattered white clouds at left—covers the remaining three-quarters of the canvas.