Paul Keene painted Symphony in Blue while studying at the Académie Julien in Paris. The moody atmosphere of the picture evokes the city’s jazz clubs where international groups of artists and bohemians would gather to enjoy music and camaraderie. A gallery label on the reverse reveals that Keene exhibited this painting at Dubin Galleries at 2016 Locust Street, Philadelphia, in 1954 and 1955. He set the price at $350.

The Black musicians depicted just as easily could evoke the sounds and culture of North Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century. Many musicians, artists, and writers of the period lived in Sharswood, a neighborhood known for its jazz clubs and cultural hotspots. Today, preservation activists like Faye Anderson of All That Philly Jazz are working to preserve the remaining sites and memories of this cultural history.