Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 37
p34
p34
Line Figure in Beige and
Mauve
Alternative Title: Untitled
1946
Oil and sand on canvas board
30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
inscriptions
Recto not signed, not dated
Verso: Robert Motherwell 1946
oil on canvas
Verso (on pasted cardboard): Robert
Motherwell oil on canvas 1946
present owner
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,
Hartford, Conn. The Ella Gallup
Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner
Collection Fund
provenance
Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Chareau, ca. 1946;
Dollie Chareau, 1950; Kay Hillman,
New York; [Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc.,
New York, May 3, 1974, lot 503, illus.];
Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc.,
1974; Nancy Ittleson, 1974; [Sotheby’s,
New York, October 4, 1990, lot 16,
p35
illus.]; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum
of Art, Hartford, Conn., 1990
p35
solo exhibitions
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York,
January 1946, cat. no. 5.
1946
Oil and sand on canvas board
17⅜ x 13⅝ in. (44.1 x 34.6 cm)
group exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York,
September 1946 (traveling), cat. no. 66;
shown in New York only.
inscriptions
Recto, upper right: R. Motherwell 46
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,
Hartford, Conn., 1991, as Untitled.
artist’s studio number
p46-8
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,
Hartford, Conn., 2005, as Untitled.
present owner
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
Purchase, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Denby, by exchange
references
Coates 1946, p. 50; New York Herald
Tribune 1946, p. 7, as Beige and Mauve.
comments
We have restored the original title of
this work, which was forgotten after
1946. Motherwell commented on his use
of mauve in a letter of May 22, 1946, to
Dorothy Miller: “I have always intended
to repaint the border of the Chareau
picture, so that ought to be kept in mind
if you intend borrowing it, the hue is a
little too sweet, I think” (see “Writings
by the Artist,” in the Bibliography).
Abstraction
Verso not signed, not dated
references
Mattison 1985b, p. 179, illus. n.p.
(fig. 159), referred to in text and in
illus. as Figuration; Caws 2003, illus.
p. 43 (ill. 31).
comments
Motherwell reacquired this painting
and another early work (p24) from the
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery in 1966,
in exchange for two recent ink-onpaper works: Beside the Sea No. 40
(unknown owner) and Spontaneity No. 1
(The Century Association, New York).
provenance
Vera G. and Albert A. List, ca. 1946;
[Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc.,
New York, May 13, 1964, lot 58];
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Inc.,
New York, 1964; Robert Motherwell,
1966; Dedalus Foundation, 1991;
Carnegie Museum of Art,
Pittsburgh, 1994
group exhibitions
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
2002, cat. no. 199.
pai ntin gs on c anvas and panel
25
