North End

Artist Leonard Pryor (American, 1924 - 2015)

Date1950

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 46 1/4 × 34 1/4 inches (117.48 × 87 cm)
Framed: 50 7/8 × 39 × 2 1/4 inches (129.22 × 99.06 × 5.72 cm)

Credit LineGift of Reneé Pryor Newton and Craig Pryor in loving memory of their parents Leonard and Maxine Pryor

Object number2022.8.1

SignedSigned in black paint, lower right: “LEONARD PRYOR 1950”

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

DescriptionThe horizontally oriented composition describes the Kansas City skyline when looking south from across the river. Ruts in the dirt road that start at the foreground reach the middle ground and stop just short of the centerline of the composition. Left of the ruts, starting at the edge of the canvas, are three brick buildings that diminish in size as they recede into space. Along the exterior of the first building is a grey washbasin and a barrel that may be used for burning. Behind the barrel and in front of the second building at the left of the composition is a wooden fence. In the middle ground to the right of the dirt ruts is a male figure hunched over and pushing a wooden cart.

Two more figures are present in the scene and occupy the foreground. A child in blue overalls and an orange shirt holds a stick in their right hand. Another figure, an adult woman in a grey dress, places her left hand on the child’s right shoulder. A mop and small metal drum with a lid lean against a red brick building at the right of the foreground. A clothes line stretches across the composition from the left group of buildings to the two brick buildings at the right and divides the composition into upper and lower halves. Hanging on the clothesline from left to right are a rectangular white cloth, white long johns, and five more rectangular cloths all blowing slightly in the wind. In the upper half of the composition above the clothesline is a river with a boat.

On the opposite side of the river is a train with five train cars in varying shades of red and orange traveling from right to left. Rows of trees peek out from behind the train. Seven gray skyscrapers of varying sizes occupy the background and stretch up towards a cloud filled sky.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Leonard Pryor juxtaposes two views of Kansas City in this painting. The foreground bustles with intimate details of daily life. Laundry flaps in the breeze. A woman guides a child along a rutted road while a man steers his cart toward a burn barrel. Accross the Missouri River in downtown Kansas City, a distinctive two-towered skyscraper known as the Federal Office Building (now an apartment complex) dominates the skyline.

Pryor was the first African American student at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he later served as academic dean.

Provenance

The artist, Kansas City, Missouri, 2015;

Renee Newton and Craig Pryor, Kansas City, Missouri, 2022;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 2022.

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