A self-taught artist who began drawing in his eighties after a lifetime of enslavement and sharecropping, Bill Traylor created this striking depiction of a black bear with his characteristic economy of form and bold simplicity. The animal is rendered with a flat, graphic quality that conveys a sense of weight and presence despite its minimalist execution. Traylor's untrained yet deeply intuitive approach transforms a straightforward subject into a powerful example of American folk art.