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The Highwaymen: African American Visions of the Florida Landscape

Sat, Aug 30, 2025 10:00AM EDT
  2025-08-30 10:00:00 2025-08-30 10:00:00 America/New_York Circle Auction Circle Auction : The Highwaymen: African American Visions of the Florida Landscape https://bid.circle-auction.com/auctions/circle-auction/the-highwaymen-african-american-visions-of-the-florida-landscape-19998
A single-owner collection of works by the Florida Highwaymen, a collective of 26 African American landscape painters formed in the 1950s. Denied the opportunity to show their work in the art galleries of the Jim Crow South, these artists, led by Harold Newton and Alfred Hair, drove up and down the roads of Southeast Florida selling their paintings out of the trunks of their cars. Their vibrant scenery and enterprising spirit stand as an inspiring example of Black art overcoming adverse circumstances, and today each member of the Highwaymen are inductees of the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Circle Auction info@circle-auction.com
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Harold Newton "Summerlin Dock, Evening" Oil on Board
Lot 13

Harold Newton "Summerlin Dock, Evening" Oil on Board

Estimate: $4,000 - $8,000
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Current Bid
$2,000
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Harold Newton

(Florida, 1934-1994)

Summerlin Dock, Evening

Oil on board

20" x 16"

 

Signed to the lower right. The frame measures 22" x 18".

 

Harold Newton is considered the first, most important, and most talented of all of the Highwaymen. Born one of 18 children in a blended Florida family, Newton was raised in Georgia, and moved out on his own and back to Florida's Treasure Coast as a teenager. He had always been interested in art, and a 1954 meeting with Bean Backus, the Dean of Florida Landscape Painters, profoundly shaped his own work and career to come. Newton watched Backus work in his studio for long stretches, gaining an arsenal of techniques, and when Newton artfully replicated Backus's scenery, he was met with wonder and great encouragement.

 

In 1954, Newton began to peddle his own landscapes on the street, the only sales model available to African Americans in the Jim Crow South. He found enough success to inspire his friend Alfred Hair, a student of Backus, to follow his lead selling door-to-door. Newton and Hair inspired numerous other aspiring artists to learn their styles and techniques, and one by one, a loose group of 26 variously connected Black artists came together to form a collective of sorts that would retrospectively be known as the Highwaymen.

 

Though the more social Alfred Hair was considered the heart of the group, it was Harold Newton's skillful painting that inspired most of all. Highwayman James Gibson said "If it wasn't for Harold, we wouldn't really have been painting. He could paint better than we could." Willie Daniels, another Highwayman, commented, "Harold was number one. Everyone wanted to be like him. Masterpieces off the top of his head." And Highwayman Roy McLendon considered Newton to be every bit as good as Bean Backus, and "sometimes better." Harold Newton remained devoted to his art throughout his life, before he tragically passed away at 59 years old, right before a major critical reassessment and interest in the Highwaymen began in earnest.

 

Literature: Gary Monroe, Harold Newton: The Original Highwayman, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 2007.

Condition

Good condition, noting very small spots scattered on the surface of the paint layer. No in-painting or over-painting noted upon blacklight inspection.

Overall Dimensions
Height: 22.00 in
Width: 18.00 in
Depth: 1.50 in

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