morris museum of art, augusta, ga.1993_8_94-95

I can t Sleep by John McCrady is dated 1948, but the Mississippi-born painter began to sketch the idea fifteen years earlier, when he lived in New Orleans in a ramshackle house in the French Quarter that was home to plenty of raucous parties. In this bravura scene, lit and split in half like a stage set, McCrady is the distressed fellow sitting up in bed on the ground floor, trying to shut out the blare of the music and thumping of the dancers directly above him.