Henry Bozeman Jones (March 11, 1887 – April 1, 1971) was an African American artist, writer, print-maker, illustrator, teacher, athletic coach and school counselor.
[2] He attended the academy from 1908 to 1910, studying under artists Thomas Anshutz, Henry Poore, William Merritt Chase and Hugh Breckenridge.
He worked at a number of jobs while painting part time - as a shipping clerk, bellboy, porter, cement worker, actor, printer and teacher.
[8][1] In a column about versatile men, a Philadelphia Tribune writer noted in 1954 that Jones, then retired, was skilled in building cupboards and cabinets.
[14][15][16][1][17][18] He was so beloved by one former student, a Philadelphia Tribune columnist, that the man started a campaign to hold an annual testimonial in Jones' honor.
In 1944, Crisis magazine described him as an “accomplished artist in oils as well as a writer” and listed him among Philadelphia’s “preeminent” citizens, along with Freelon, Dox Thrash and author Jessie Redmon Fauset.
[25] The arts writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer described him in 1932 as “decidedly gifted.”[4] Thirty years earlier, in 1913, Crisis noted that he was developing a talent as a portrait painter, producing two works of Frederick Douglass.
In the stop at the National Art Gallery in Washington in 1929, art critic Leila Mechlin wrote in a review that portraits by Jones, John W. Hardwick and Charles Dawson were “well painted, well constructed, strong, and give indication of good teaching, sound instruction in fundamentals.” [5][27][28][29][30][31][32] His submissions in the 1930 Harmon show were “Portrait Study,” “Miss Frances Waters,” “Raymond Rourke” and “Banks of Chaloon.” In 1931, Harmon chose “Dream Time,” “Mrs.
Rather than trying to explain the piece, a newspaper writer decided to use Jones’ own words:[36][28][37]“The Gulla Negroes of the Carolina coasts have a tale which says that a buzzard alights on the roof of a house in which a person is dying.
Only those who are pious and godly may witness this strange departure of the soul.” [4]At that Warwick show, he also exhibited a study of trees called “Wind Scales,” along with “Jessup Street” and “The Voodoo Tree.” Later that year, he was singled out in a newspaper story for the oil “The Moon was Gracious.” In 1933, Jones was cited for his “distinct flavor and a high charm” in the painting “Respectability,” a “quaint name for a beautiful grouping of simple houses” (Freelon was among the exhibitors).
Jones was noted for having the “best ‘idea’ picture” for “'Creation', the Biblical episode concerning the beginning of men and women but treated cosmically, so to speak, as if the event were accompanied by triumphant demonstrations on the part of the then-new nature.” In 1935, his entry was “Night,” which showed the head of a Black woman.
“The reverence implicit in Henry B. Jones’ prayerful ‘Evening Rite’ has the simple appeal of the quattrocento,” a newspaper reviewer wrote.
In 1940, a reviewer wrote that "Henry B. Jones indulges a bit in symbolism in his well drawn and cut block print 'Encore – Pagan Dance,' its two nude figures on a graveyard’s edge, telling the artist’s story in a fashion not to be misunderstood."
[5][54] Two years later, he presented 11 works in oil at the Gallery of American Contemporary Art in Philadelphia from the North Carolina leg of that trip, including “Tired Fields After Rains” and “Sharecropper’s Cabin.” Artist Samuel J.
In 1948, he wrote the catalog’s foreword titled “The Pyramid Club Recognizes a Necessity.” His entry was a portrait of his son Perry in profile wearing a yellow coat against a soft green background.
[62] His works were included in a major show in 1989 titled “Against the Odds: African Americans and the Harmon Foundation.” It was first mounted in the Newark Museum of Art and traveled to other cities in the United States.
The series, sponsored by the Philadelphia Fellowship Commission, dramatized the lives of important Americans in an effort to combat intolerance and promote equal opportunity.
[70] Jones painted a portrait of Dr. Henry McKee Minton, an African American pharmacist who helped found Mercy Hospital for Black people in Philadelphia.