Style Imitating Art | “Harlem at Night” by Charles Henry Alston

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

To kick off a new year of fashion challenges, Marsha chose this week’s inspiration artwork because she loves all the shapes, colors, and movement in the painting. Having seen the original oil painting at Newfields, Marsha says the photo of the artwork doesn’t do the original any justice. Be sure to visit Marsha’s post for more details.

The Artwork

“Harlem at Night” by Charles Henry Alston

About the Artist: Charles Henry Alston

Charles Henry Alston was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on November 28, 1907, the youngest of five children to Reverend Primus Priss Alston and Anna Elizabeth (Miller) Alston. In addition to Charles, his older sister Rousmaniere and his older brother Wendell were the only Alston children to survive past infancy. Reverend Alston gave Charles the nickname “Spinky” which would stick with him into adulthood.

Charles’s father was born into slavery in Pittsboro, North Carolina, in 1851. Following the Civil War, he graduated from St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, and became a prominent minister and the founder of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, which boasted a dominantly African-American congregation. After dedicating his work to the betterment of his race in America, Reverend Alston died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1910. Charles was only three years old.

Three years later, Charles’s mother married Harry Bearden, Romare Bearden‘s uncle. (We featured Romare Bearden’s “Conjunction” in a Style Imitating Art challenge a few years ago.) The two families lived across the street from each other. Charles and his younger cousin Romare developed a close bond as children that evolved into a lifelong friendship. The family moved to New York City in 1915 during the Great Migration where they lived a middle-class lifestyle in Harlem. His step-father had a job overseeing elevator operations and the newsstand staff at the Breton Hotel on the Upper West Side. Charles’s step-sister, Aida C. Bearden, was born in 1917. She later married baritone opera singer Lawrence Whisonant.

As a young child, Charles was inspired by his older brother Wendell’s drawings. He also developed an early interest in sculpting with clay. Creativity and artistic talent ran in the family as his father was adept at drawing and sketching and his mother was skilled at embroidery. His mother also took up painting when she was 75 years old.

Charles graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1925. During his time there, he was nominated for academic excellence, he was named editor of the school magazine, and he was a member of the National Honor Society all while taking Saturday classes in drawing and anatomy at the National Academy of Art. He received his first set of oil paints in high school and learned about his aunt Bessye Johnson Bearden and her art salons. Upon graduation, he turned down a scholarship from the Yale School of Fine Arts to attend Columbia University instead.

He began his college studies in the pre-architectural program but lost interest after learning of the difficulties experienced by African-American architects in the field. Next he took pre-med classes but decided that math, physics, and chemistry just weren’t for him. Finally, he entered the fine arts program, joined Alpha Phi Alpha, worked on the school newspaper, and drew cartoons for the school magazine. Charles also embraced the Harlem experience by exploring local restaurants and bars where his love of jazz music was fostered. He graduated in 1929, receiving the Arthur Wesley Dow fellowship to Teacher’s College where he completed his Master’s Degree in 1931.

From 1942 to 1943, Alston was stationed in Arizona with United States Army. While working on a mural project at Harlem Hospital, he met then surgical intern, Myra Adele Logan, who he would marry on April 8, 1944. The couple lived in Highbridge Park, in close proximity to Alston’s family. At their frequent family gatherings, Charles enjoyed cooking while his wife, a renowned classical pianist, entertained on the piano.

Myra died on January 13, 1977, from lung cancer at the age of 68. Just a few months later, after a long battle with cancer, Charles died on April 27, 1977. He was 69. The couple had no children.

Charles Aston was an important man in American art history. He was the first African-American instructor at both the Art Students League and the Museum of Modern Art. He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to the National Council of Culture and the Arts and by New York City mayor John Lindsay to the New York City Art Commission. He was awarded the first Distinguished Alumni Award from Teachers College and a scholarship was created in his name by the Art Student’s League. He was the first African-American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project and his bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. became the first image of an African-American displayed in the White House.

For more details about the evolution of Alston’s work, the catalog of his artwork, and public reception and opinions about it, I always find Wikipedia easy to read for general background information of this type.

About the Art: “Harlem at Night”

“Harlem at Night” is a 1948 oil painting on canvas by Charles Henry Alston. Depicting a nighttime scene in Harlem, this piece illustrates the importance of jazz and the Harlem social scene to Alston in his work and his social life.

The canvas measures 28 x 36 inches (71.1 x 91.4 cm) with a frame that is 36-7/8 x 45 x 2-1/8 inches (93.7 x 114.3 x 5.4 cm). In 2022, the painting was purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana, where it is currently on display.

About My Outfit

On Friday, I shared some of my favorite Christmas gifts including this gorgeous silk robe from my son. I had hung it on top of an old leopard print dress and it didn’t take long for me to realize that the combination was perfect for this art challenge. The brown and black leopard print resembles the dark color palette of the painting that is spattered with bursts of golden lights. The deep blue color on my silk robe is nearly the exact same shade of blue that colors the nighttime sky in the painting and the golden flowers are very similar to the lights illuminating the Harlem night.

I used black and gold to accent and accessorize with a black turtleneck sweater for extra warmth, tall black boots, black velvet gloves, a very old scarf featuring a black and gold printed, and my black floppy hat with the rooster brooch. My jewelry includes a pair of thrifted copper earrings and a really old pendant necklace with colorful gemstones. Because red is a dominant color in the painting but I didn’t have any red in my outfit other than a crystal or two in my rooster brooch, I also added a preloved necklace with red beads.

Obviously, the snowy background of my photos is a bit brighter than the darker background of painting but there isn’t much I can do to help that. The snowy background, however, did require a coat. I added an old navy blue coat with the giant furry cuffs because the color matched and the style felt very appropriate for Harlem in the 1940s.

I was really quite pleased with the outcome of this outfit. Not so much with the weather.

I hope you all enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this painting. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, January 14, 2026.

Happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee