Daily Devotions (Primary Title)

Sara D. November, American, 1900 - 1983 (Artist)

1934
American
oil on canvas
Place Made,United States,Richmond, Virginia
Unframed: 22 1/4 × 28 1/4 in. (56.52 × 71.76 cm)
2013.251
Not on view

Dressed in brightly toned, highly fashionable clothing, four women occupy the sacred space of the card table, where they gather with a religious-like solemnity. Only introduced to the United States at the end of the 19th century, by the 1930s bridge had become a wildly popular card game and American phenomenon, as celebrity players captured national newspaper headlines. Across the country, women’s clubs formed around the game and routine gatherings became great social events, as seen here in the subjects’ clothing and stylish hairdos. Initially trained as a commercial illustrator, Sara D. November was an active member of Richmond’s art world in the late 1920s and ’30s. She was also acclaimed as a progressive educator who, in 1934, established and taught free art classes for African American students at Richmond’s Phillis Wheatley YWCA.

Modern
Gift of Sara Belle and Neil November
Forty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of American Paintins and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, October 22 - December 6, 1936. (exhibited as Afternoon Devotions)

Hampton Roads Collects, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, July 13 - September 2, 1984.

Sara November, Artist, Patron, Teacher, The Windmueller Gallery, Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives, Richmond, VA, June, 1999.
©artist or artist’s estate

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