Love - Self-Portrait, Reta May Morter
1923
Mesdames Morter, Dorothy Morter, Reta Morter
Artist, British, active 1920 - 1930
Artist, British, 1888 - 1976
Artist, British, 1892 - 1977
Artwork overview
-
Medium
gelatin silver print
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
image/sheet: 37.4 × 26.8 cm (14 3/4 × 10 9/16 in.)
mount: 55.5 × 45.9 cm (21 7/8 × 18 1/16 in.) -
Accession Number
2020.66.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(sale, Christie’s, South Kensington, 1 November 1990, lot 208); (Keith de Lellis Gallery, New York); NGA purchase, 2020.
Associated Names
Inscriptions
signed by artist, lower center on mount in black ink: "Love" / Picture by D + R Morter; bottom left: I / Love has a hem to its garment / That touches the very dust / It can reach the stains of the streets + lanes / And because it can it must.; bottom center: II / It dare not rest on the mountains / It is bound to come down to the plains / For it cannot reach its fullness of mind / Till it falls on the lives that fail.; bottom right: III / And the place of its deepest [illegible] / Reveals its strength to save / Since its fairest form is seen in the flowers / That blossoms above the grave.; on verso, signed by artist, center in black ink: Love / Mesdames Morter / Lower Grosvenor Place / London / SWI / Blackpool [underlined] / Champion Class / Number I; by unknown hand, lower center in orange crayon crossed out in red crayon: A+; lower left in black crayon crossed out in red crayon: 402; lower left K. & D.P.A. exhibition label; by unknown hand, lower center in pink crayon circled: Silver Plaque; lower right Blackpool exhibition award label; by unknown hand, lower right in blue crayon crossed out in red crayon: 2 291; bottom right in orange crayon circled: 4