The Artist and His Mother

c. 1926-c. 1942

Arshile Gorky

Artist, American, born Van Province, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), c. 1904 - 1948

A young boy with pink and tan-colored skin stands next to a seated woman with an ashen white face, and both look out at us in this vertical portrait painting. The scene is created with broad areas of mottled color in rust and coral red, pale pink, lilac purple, ivory white, and shades of tawny brown. The eyes of both people are heavily outlined with large, dark pupils. To our right, the woman’s pale, oval face is surrounded by a muted, mint-green cloth that covers her hair and wraps across her neck. Her eyes are outlined with charcoal gray, and her heavy lids shaded under arched brows with smoky, plum purple. She has a straight nose, and her burgundy-red lips are closed in a straight line. Her long, rose-pink dress is lavender purple below the knee, and is scrubbed with darker pink strokes across her lap. Her sleeves are tan on the upper arms and cream white on the forearm, over two blush-pink forms that represent her hands resting on her thighs. Along the top of her shoulders, her dress is terracotta red. A rectangular, fog-gray form behind her could be a chair or a half-wall, the top edge of which is higher to our right of her head. To our left, the boy has dark brown, short hair over putty pink, protruding ears. The area between his eyelid and arched brow is filled in with chocolate brown, giving his staring eyes a hooded look. His jawline, chin, and lips are outlined with dark brown. His khaki-brown, knee-length coat has pale, rose-pink sleeves and a black collar. An area of pale, ice blue could be a kerchief or high-collared shirt, and he wears fawn-brown pants. One of his slippers is coffee brown and the other, closer to the woman, is slate gray. He holds a loosely painted, pale, turquoise-blue object in one hand at his waist. The pair are situated against a background painted in areas of coral, ruby, crimson, and wine red. Two vertical, concrete-gray strips behind the boy and woman could be columns. The floor along the bottom edge of the painting is pale pink.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 152.3 x 127 cm (59 15/16 x 50 in.)
    framed: 155.7 x 130.2 cm (61 5/16 x 51 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1979.13.1

  • Copyright

    © 1997 The Estate of Arshile Gorky / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

More About this Artwork

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The estate of the artist; private collection; (Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York); purchased 28 February 1979 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1957

  • 33 Paintings by Arshile Gorky, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1957, no. 2, repro.

1962

  • Arshile Gorky: Paintings, Drawings, Studies, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, D.C., 1962-1963, no. 17, repro.

1965

  • Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, Tate Gallery, London; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1965, no. 19, repro.

1977

  • Malerei und Photographie im Dialog von 1840 bis Heute, Kunsthaus, Zurich, May-July 1977, no. 52, repro.

  • The Modern Spirit: American Painting 1908-1935, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Hayward Gallery, London, August-November 1977, no. 151.

1979

  • Arshile Gorky: Important Paintings and Drawings, Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York, 1979, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1981

  • Arshile Gorky 1904-1948: A Retrospective, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981-1982, no. 76, repro. (shown only in New York and Los Angeles).

1989

  • Arshile Gorky: 1904-1948, Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1989-1990, no. 9, repro.

1995

  • Armenien: Wiederentdeckung einer alten Kulturlandschaft, Museum Bochum, Germany, 1995, no. 321, repro.

2002

  • Arshile Gorky Portraits, Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2006

  • Arshile Gorky, Fresno Art Museum, 2006, no. 1, repro.

2009

  • Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2009-2010, no. 33, repro.

2015

  • Collection Conversations: The Chrysler and the National Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2015, no catalogue.

2019

  • The Warmth of Other Suns, The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2019.

Bibliography

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 166, repro.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: no. 61, color repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: repro. 240, 243.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 616, no. 952, color repro.

  • Lader, Melvin P. "Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother: Further Study of its Evolution, Sources, and Meaning." Arts Magazine 58, no. 5 (January 1984): 96-104, fig. 3.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 188, no. 71, color repro.

1989

  • Kramer, Hilton. "Modern Art at the National Gallery." The New Criterion 7, no. 8 (April 1989): 3.

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 46, repro. 47.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 188, repro.

1997

  • Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. St. Louis, 1997: 112-113, 207, color repro.

2000

  • Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 264.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 430-431, no. 358, color repro.

2010

  • Gale, Matthew. Arshile Gorky: Enigma and Nostalgia. London, 2010: 24, fig. 6.

2022

  • Meyer, James. "Exhibitions." Art for the Nation no. 65 (Spring 2022): 30-31, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20192604

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