Winold Reiss, 16 Sep 1886 - 29 Aug 1953 - Roland Hayes - 1924 - T-Shirt

Winold Reiss's 1924 pastel head study of the tenor Roland Hayes presents a single man, turned slightly, with his gaze drawn to the side against an open cream ground.

Visual Elements & Composition

The cream paper fills most of the frame, and the head sits alone in it with no setting or clothing shown. The face is built from warm medium brown and rust pastel, with deeper dark brown shadows along the cheek, brow and jaw and lighter touches on the nose and lower lip. Short dark hair is worked in loose charcoal strokes that dissolve into the paper at the edges. The artist's signature appears beneath the chin on the right.

Meaning & Symbolism

The isolated head and inward look turn the study into a character portrait rather than a record of a performance. Reiss concentrates on the structure of the face and the mood of the sitter, setting Hayes's individuality against the stereotypes common in the popular imagery of the period. Hayes was a concert singer known for art songs, opera arias and spirituals, and he ranked among the most admired Black classical musicians of the 1920s. Reiss, a German-born painter who settled in the United States, made this and related portraits of Harlem Renaissance figures around 1924 and 1925, tying his American work to the cultural life of that movement.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee carries the head study across the chest, where the single figure and open cream field read clearly at a glance. The quiet, centred composition suits a shirt worn in ordinary daily settings, letting the sitter's direct expression stay the focus of the print.