Rehmat Sakrani
The Arts in NYC
IDC 1001H
Palmer Hayden, Painter
Peyton Cole Hedgeman, was born in the town of Widewater, Virginia on January 15, 1890. Later known as Palmer Hayden, he was an African American painter most known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. Painting in both oils and watercolors, he depicted African American life in both urban cities and the rural South.
As a young boy, Hayden moved to Washington D.C. in order to make a living. He spent most of his time working odd jobs and working with the Ringling Brothers Circus. He soon began to make advertisement posters for the circus and sketched in his spare time. Then in 1911, Hayden was enlisted in the US Army’s African American division (the 24th regiment) to serve in the Philippines. It was during his time here that Hayden’s name was changed because of an administrative mistake. He served later in West Point, NY and ended in 1920, almost a decade later. During these nine to ten years, Hayden continued to draw and sharpen his skills. After he finished serving, in 1923, he decided to change his name legally.
When Hayden was discharged, he decided to go to New York City. Hayden then took summer courses at Columbia University for studying drawing and worked night shifts at the post office. A little while later, Hayden bumped into a great person that gave him the opportunity to strive even more for his career as an artist. He found work as a janitor in an apartment building at Greenwich Village. During his time there, he met one of his tenants, Victor Perard, who was an art teacher at Cooper Union. Hayden was lucky enough to study with Perard at Cooper Union and then traveled to Maine to study at Boothbay Art Colony in 1925. At Boothbay he was able to get further formal instruction. Despite having furthered his studies, Hayden kept learning through experience. While he was in Maine, he painted sceneries and seascapes. Then in 1926, Hayden was recognized for his still life piece called Fetiche et Fleurs which was given a gold medal from the Harmon Foundation in visual arts.
This award prompted his patrons to support him for studying and working in France. Hayden went to Paris for about five years where he socialized and worked with artists like Hale Woodruff. During his five years, Hayden created one of his well-known watercolor masterpieces, called Nous quatre a Paris, in which he features himself playing cards with Woodruff and other writers. The expressions and face features in the painting are extremely exaggerated as Hayden wanted to reference indigenous African art.
When Hayden returned to the United States, he began working with the United States government. In about 1935, he worked for the United States Treasury Arts Project as an easel painter and then later on worked for the Depression era government funded Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was really during the 1930s, around this time, that Hayden made his standing as a painter of the Harlem Renaissance. He painted of outdoor summer streets life in the urban environment in his painting Midsummer Night in Harlem (1936).
Another one of his works that is extremely well known, is titled The Janitor Who Paints (1937). This painting depicts an African American artist painting a mother and her child in a very tight knit apartment that contains certain tools for both an artist and a janitor. In the original version of this painting, there was a picture of Abraham Lincoln on the wall and the people in the painting had exaggerated facial features. When it was put on display in 1939, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the painting received much criticism for being offensively racist. Hayden decided to paint over it and later talked about how his masterpiece served as a protest piece for his talented friend Cloyd Boykin who was an artist, but was not recognized for being more than just a janitor. Many people considered this painting to be an expression of Palmer Hayden’s tough times that he had and dealt with even around this time.
For the next ten years, from 1944 to 1954, Hayden worked on a series of works. This series of twelve works was inspired by African American folk hero, John Henry. It took ten years to complete. For Hayden, John Henry was a character that he remembered from stories in his youth. John Henry was actually known for being a strong male who was known for using hammers to create a railroad and tunnel through mountains. A lot of the paintings show John Henry as shirtless with a great muscular figure and a hammer either in his hand or around him. Some of the pieces have him working on the railroads and others show him bringing joy to everyone he was surrounded by.
These five paintings are just a few that Hayden created based on John Henry and what he represented for the African American community.
Although Hayden was recognized for his tremendous work, he was often criticized for his pieces being racist at some times with the exaggerated facial features of African Americans depicted. Many people in the African American community were trying to shed these stereotypes. What Hayden and several writers were trying to address during this time however, was the idea of what the “New Negro” was and what image they would have. This idea challenged many as African Americans were trying to figure out their identities every day.
On February 18th, 1973, Palmer Hayden left this world at age 83. Hayden left the African American community with prideful works and great documentation of history. He also gave a huge contribution to the Harlem Renaissance.
Works Cited
“Palmer Hayden”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 05 Nov. 2016
“Palmer Hayden, Harlem Renaissance Artist and beyond.” Welcome To “Voices That Guide Us” Personal Narratives. African American Registry, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
