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NGA Washington acquires works by Cassatt, Gorky, and others

Arshile Gorky, Untitled (Cubist Figure), c. 1930

Arshile Gorky, Untitled (Cubist Figure), c. 1930
gouache and collage on board
National Gallery of Art, Washington,
Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Fund

NGA acquires works by Cassatt, Gorky, and others Works by Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), Jan Miense Molenaer (1610–1668), Arshile Gorky (1904–1948), and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), better known as Lewis Carroll, are among works recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.]]>

August 6, 2015, source: National Gallery of Art, Washington

“We are delighted with the acquisition of these key works by Mary Cassatt, Jan Miense Molenaer, Arshile Gorky, and Lewis Carroll, as well as the exquisite gift from Harry Havemeyer in memory of his father Horace. Harry W. Havemeyer and his brother Horace Havemeyer, Jr., also donated Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece, ‘A Lady Writing’ (c. 1665) to the Gallery in 1962, among other works, in their father’s memory,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art.

“Eddy Cassatt” (1875), a portrait of Edward Buchanan Cassatt, the eldest son of Mary Cassatt’s brother Alexander, offers a striking complement to Cassatt’s later painting ‘Little Girl in a Blue Armchair’ (1878), also in the Gallery’s collection. “Self-Portrait as a Lute Player” (c. 1635) depicts Jan Miense Molenaer wearing a wide-brimmed hat and quietly tuning his lute, an activity that symbolically suggests the sitter’s commitment to conduct his life in a balanced and harmonious manner.

Previously owned by his widow and children, “Untitled (Cubist Figure)” (c. 1930) shows Arshile Gorky wrestling with the abstract works of Picasso’s analytic cubism. While the work, which is essentially a painting on paper, is largely abstract, a female nude is nonetheless recognizable from her triangular and circular breasts and rounded hips.

Among the many photography acquisitions is a photograph by Lewis Carroll, “Alice and Lorina Liddell in Chinese Dress” (1860). This iconic photograph of Alice, the little girl who inspired Carroll’s masterwork of children’s literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, shows her with her older sister.

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NGA Washington acquires works by Cassatt, Gorky, and others