James Belton Bonsall Blue Period Guitarist & Dog, Oil on Burlap, 1946/47

A seated guitarist tunes his instrument as a dog waits at his knee, the whole scene worked in a deep blue-gray field with warm amber lifting the guitar body and the floor. The composition draws directly on Picasso's Blue Period — the melancholy palette, the inward-turned figure, the spare narrative — rendered here in oil on a coarse burlap-weave ground stapled directly to a lightweight wood support with nailhead trim at the edges. This is an early, unframed work, intimate in scale and confident in its figurative handling.

The verso inscription, in the artist's hand, reads "James Belton Bonsall / 1946/47 one of my first paintings I did," dating the canvas to the period just after his WWII service and before his formal fine arts training at Louisiana State University. The deliberate Blue Period borrowing here is the mark of a young painter teaching himself through the masters — and the canvas comes directly from the heirs of the artist's estate.

James Belton Bonsall (1926–1999) was a Louisiana-born painter known for his distinctive depictions of Southern landscapes, still lifes, and abstract compositions. Born in Grand Chenier, Louisiana, Bonsall developed a passion for art early in life. After serving in World War II, he pursued fine arts at Louisiana State University and later moved to California, where he worked in set design for theater, television, and film. In the 1950s he returned to New Orleans, where he became an integral part of the French Quarter's artistic scene. Over his lifetime he produced over 500 works, spanning styles from modernist abstraction to richly detailed Southern narratives, with exhibition history in galleries, institutions, and private collections throughout the Gulf Coast region.

This guitarist predates Bonsall's LSU enrollment and his California years — it is juvenilia in the truest sense, a self-identified starting point from a documented artist. A self-inscribed early work holds particular biographical weight precisely because it marks the origin of a 500-canvas career. The Blue Period influence is not incidental: Picasso's Blind Guitarist and related works were widely reproduced by the 1940s and served as a touchstone for a generation of GI-generation painters learning to see through emulation before they learned to see on their own terms.

• From the heirs of the artist's estate — estate-fresh, direct chain of custody
• Inscribed and dated by the artist on the verso: "James Belton Bonsall / 1946/47 one of my first paintings I did" First word of inscription may be a personal nickname — full legibility unconfirmed; refer to supplemental reference image of verso

CONDITION

Good with age-appropriate wear. Craquelure throughout the paint surface, consistent with the era and the burlap ground. The canvas is loose on its support; restretching may be desired. Paint extends beyond the stretcher edges and the margins carry nailhead trim.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 25 7/8" H × 15 1/8" W × 7/8" D
• Medium: Oil on burlap-weave canvas
• Support: Lightweight wood board, canvas tacked and stapled directly with nailhead trim at edges
• Inscribed verso: "James Belton Bonsall / 1946/47 one of my first paintings I did"
• Presentation: Unframed