Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné
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Catalogue Entry

P009
(Park Landscape)
c. 1926–27
Oil on canvas mounted on board
22 x 18 1/8 in. (55.9 x 46 cm)
Front not inscribed
Reverse not seen
Private collection
Exhibitions
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 4, ill. in b/w, p. 65, as "Untitled (Landscape)," dated late 1920s. Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.
Literature
Waldman, Diane. "Arshile Gorky: Poet in Paint." In Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in collaboration with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1981. Exhibition catalogue, discussed p. 21, as "Landscape".
Millard, Charles W. "Arshile Gorky." The Hudson Review (New York) 35, no. 1 (Spring 1982), discussed, p. 105, as "Untitled (Landscape)".
Jordan, Jim M. "Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings." In The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue, by Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater. New York and London: New York University Press, 1982, no. 9, ill. in b/w, pp. 134–35, as "Park Landscape".
Notes
The canvas was mounted on board by the artist. The reverse is covered by a backing board.

Commentary

In an interview published in the September 15, 1926, edition of the New York Evening Post, Gorky praised modern art and named Paul Cezanne (1839–1906), Henri Matisse (1869–1954), and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) as "greater artists than the old masters."1 Of these, he continued, "Cézanne is the greatest artist, shall I say, that has lived."2 A number of Gorky's early paintings convey his intense study of Cezanne, including this landscape. According to his wife Agnes "Mougouch" (1921–2013), Gorky claimed that it was the first work he painted in the United States, however, this is unconfirmed.3   

Although the title is identified as lifetime in Jim M. Jordan's catalogue raisonné, there is no known extant documentation confirming its origin with the artist and we have therefore designated it as posthumous.

1. "Fetish of Antique Stifles Art Here, Says Gorky Kin," New York Evening Post (September 15, 1926): 17.

2. Ibid.

3. Agnes Gorky Fielding, as quoted in Jim M. Jordan, "Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings," in Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater, The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue (New York and London: New York University Press, 1982), 134–35.

4. Ibid, 134. 

After works by other artists: Paul Cezanne

Related Work

Theme: Landscape