Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné 1941 – 1991 Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 219
c431
c431
The Baltic Sea Bride No. 1
1974
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
48 x 36 in. (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
InscRIptIons
Recto, upper right: R Motherwell
8 March 74
pResent owneR
Collection of Andrea and John Stark
pRovenance
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Kootz, 1974;
[Christie’s, New York, November 12,
1980, lot 20, illus.]; private collection,
1980; Andrea and John Stark, ca. 1993
solo exhIbItIons
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1974,
cat. no. 1.
RefeRences
Arnason 1976, p. 25; Arnason 1977b,
p. 84, color illus. n.p. (pl. 241); Arnason
1982, p. 84, illus. p. 83 (pl. 78).
comments
The title of this series refers to
Motherwell’s fourth wife, Renate
Ponsold, whose father was from Reval,
Estonia, on the Baltic Sea. The sheet
music fragment is from Mozart’s Das
Bandel (k. 441), in which his wife
Costanze sings to him: “Liebes Mandel,
wo ist’s Bandel?” (Dear little husband,
where is the ribbon?). This music is also
used in The Baltic Sea Bride No. 3
(c433), The Baltic Sea Marriage (c436),
and several other works.
c432
c432
The Baltic Sea Bride No. 2
1974
Acrylic and pasted papers on Upson
board
48 x 36 in. (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
InscRIptIons
Recto, upper right: R Motherwell
20 March 74
pResent owneR
Collection of Frederic C. Hamilton
comments
The collage element in this work is an
envelope from the French periodical
Chroniques de l’art vivant, postmarked
August 26, 1971. Motherwell was featured in the magazine’s July–August
1971 issue in an interview with Irmeline
Lebeer (see Lebeer 1971). The Baltic
Sea Bride No. 4 (c434) and The Baltic
Sea Bride No. 5 (c435) also use envelopes from Chroniques de l’art vivant, as
do L’Art Vivant (c281) and 13, Quai
Montebello (c438).
pRovenance
Knoedler & Company, 1974; Klebenov
Gallery, Boston, 1974; [Sotheby Parke
Bernet, Inc., New York, November 9,
1982, lot 13, illus.]; Marjorie Leshaw,
1982; [Sotheby’s, New York, May 13,
2004, lot 205, illus.]; Frederic C.
Hamilton, 2004
solo exhIbItIons
Knoedler & Company, New York, 1974,
cat. no. 10.
RefeRences
Herrera 1974, p. 113.
co lla ges
207
