Watercolor costume sketch by Lemuel Ayers for the musical, St. Louis Woman

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A watercolor sketch by Lemuel Ayers of a costume for the musical "St. Louis Woman", as performed in 1946. This costume is for the character "Badfoot" performed by Robert Pope. At the center of the sheet of paper is a light sketch in pencil painted over in watercolor of a man wearing a long black jacket with a purple rosette boutonniere, a purple and teal-patterned vest, a white dress shirt, light-colored pinstriped pants and black shoes, with his left arm partially raised. There is a graphite sketch of a guitar, not painted, extending down to the ground from the man's right hand. At the upper left hand corner, in ink, is handwritten [#56]. Behind the figure of the man are some lightly painted lines indicating a wall and floorboards. Handwritten in pencil behind the man's right shoulder is written [emb. vest/ and velvet bund].

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