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Photo: Peter Schälchli
P015
(Pears, Peaches, Pitcher)
c. 1926–27
Oil on canvas
17 3/8 x 23 3/8 in. (44.1 x 59.4 cm)
Front not inscribed
Reverse not seen
Reverse not seen
Private collection
Provenance
Exhibitions
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Arshile Gorky, Paintings and Drawings / Arshile Gorky: Schilderijen en Tekeningen, 1965, no. 1, ill. in b/w, as "Peren, perziken en een kruik / Pears, peaches and pitcher," dated c. 1923. Traveled to: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, May 22–June 27, 1965; Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, July 24–September 5, 1965 (Museum Boymans van Beuingen 1965).
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Tate Gallery, Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, April 2–May 2, 1965, no. 1, ill. in b/w, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher," dated c. 1923.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 15, ill. in color, p. 74, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher," 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.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cézanne and Beyond, February 26–May 17, 2009, ill. in color, pl. 145, p. 406, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, October 15, 2009–January 10, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Taylor 2009a), pl. 7, ill. in color, p. 166; p. 386, as "Pears, Peaches, and Pitcher," dated c. 1928. Traveled to: Tate Modern, London, February 10–May 3, 2010 (Gale 2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, June 6–September 20, 2010 (Gale 2010).
Literature
Roberts, Keith. "Major Retrospective at the Tate." The Burlington Magazine (London) 107, no. 746 (May 1965), discussed p. 271, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
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 pp. 21, 24, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Millard, Charles W. "Arshile Gorky." The Hudson Review (New York) 35, no. 1 (Spring 1982), discussed, pp. 105-106.
Jordan, Jim M. "The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: New Discoveries, New Sources, and Chronology." 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, discussed p. 21, as "Pears, Peaches, Pitcher".
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. 15, ill. in b/w, p. 141, as "Pears, Peaches, Pitcher".
Lader, Melvin P. Arshile Gorky. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985. Monograph, fig. 13, ill. in color, p. 21, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Lader, Melvin P. "Arshile Gorky: A Modern Artist in the Academic Tradition / Arshile Gorky: Un Artista Moderno Nella Tradizione Accademica." In Arshile Gorky: Works on Paper / Opere su Carta. Rome: Edizioni Carte Segrete, 1992. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 2, ill. in b/w, p. 19, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Spender, Matthew. From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1999, ill. in b/w, p. 70, as "Pears, Peaches, Pitcher".
Herrera, Hayden. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, fig. 2, ill. in color, as "Pears, Peaches, Pitcher".
Taylor, Michael R. "Learning from 'Papa Cézanne': Arshile Gorky and the (Self-) Invention of the Modern Artist." In Cézanne and Beyond, organized by Joseph J. Rishel and Katherine Sachs. Philadelphia and New Haven: Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with Yale University Press, 2009. Exhibition catalogue, pl. 145, ill. in color, p. 406, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Alberro, Alexander. "The Apprenticeship of Arshile Gorky: On Arshile Gorky at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." Texte zur Kunst (Cologne) 77 (March 2010), discussed pp. 147, 209, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Gale, Matthew. Arshile Gorky: Enigma and Nostalgia. London: Tate Publishing, 2010. Exhibition catalogue (2009–10 Philadelphia), no. 8, ill. in color, p. 30, as "Pears, Peaches and Pitcher".
Spender, Matthew, ed. Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song: A Life in Letters and Documents. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018, ill. in color, p. 38, as "Pears, Peaches, Pitcher".
Notes
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." Of these, he continued, "Cézanne is the greatest artist, shall I say, that has lived."1 A number of Gorky's early paintings convey his intense study of Cezanne, including this still life.
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.2
1. "Fetish of Antique Stifles Art Here, Says Gorky Kin," New York Evening Post (September 15, 1926): 17.
2. Jim M. Jordan, "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), 141.
A photograph taken c. 1928 shows Arshile Gorky working in his studio at 47a Washington Square South (on Sullivan Street), New York. The pitcher that is part of this as-yet-unknown still life (see P013), closely resembles the one he depicted in Pears, Peaches, Pitcher.
Photo: © Arshile Gorky Foundation
After works by other artists: Paul Cezanne
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