Alfred Hair "Ocean Palms [Jumbo]" Oil on Upson Board

Lot description

Alfred Hair (Florida, 1941-1970) Ocean Palms Oil on Upson board 24" x 48" Signed to the bottom left corner. The frame measures 27 1/2" x 51 1/2". Though Harold Newton is called the original Highwayman, the charismatic Alfred Hair is by all accounts the artist credited with the group's marketing model and collective vision as it was. Hair developed a talent for art in school, and in the 1950s he learned from the legendary Bean Backus, "the Dean of Florida Landscape Painters." With Backus's encouragement and training, and a traveling sales model he saw his friend Harold Newton employ, Hair found that there was an appetite for his landscapes. He quickly turned to painting full time. Throughout the 1960s, he painted at a breakneck pace, endlessly energetic, and he worked alongside friends he helped train as artists. This was the heyday of the group that would later be known as the Highwaymen. With his natural talent and years of training, Hair's work stands out compared to other Highwaymen as quick and expressionistic, and his style matched his desire to create enough work to make good money. He inspired his fellow Highwaymen, and was considered the beating heart of the group. His life ended tragically in 1970, murdered outside of a bar after an altercation. His death represented the traumatic end of a golden era for the Highwaymen. This single-owner Florida Highwaymen collection was thoughtfully assembled between 1998 and 2004, with works acquired from respected sources such as the A. E. Backus Gallery and Museum, Florida art dealers John Phillips and Bob Lablanc, and noted collectors Ty and Jean Tyson.