Description:
portrait of a man with a pink face and red circular glasses sitting on a rocking chair with his legs crossed holding a piece of paper; people are playing tennis, painting a fence, lounging below him; in the background are abstract buildings, a rainbow, an american flag, and a swinging bell; portrait; costume/uniform; dance; reading/reading material
Label Text:
Stettheimer, a painter, poet and set designer, was active in New York in the 1920s and 1930s. Here, she depicts her friend, the art critic Henry McBride (1858 - 1962), as an elegant gentleman seated in an antique rocking chair. Miniature, cinema-like scenes surround him, suggesting his affectionate wit and recalling works by his favorite American artists - Winslow Homer, John Marin, Gaston Lachaise, and Charles Demuth. The scorecard in McBride's hands suggests his sporting passion as well as his role as art-world judge.
Stettheimer limited the exhibition of her work to her close friends and admirers, including avant-garde artists Marcel Duchamp, Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz. Her sister, Ettie, upon giving this portrait to Smith College, wrote, "...I also asked Henry McB. whether he thought he would be happy among your hundreds of young ladies and he thought he would, so I am very glad to present him to you."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1951.198 |
