Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Katherine Du Tiel; © The Arshile Gorky Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Greek Torso, c. 1928–29, P068. Verso: Inscription on the reverse
: Inscription on the reverse
P068
Greek Torso
c. 1928–29
Oil on canvas
36 1/8 x 46 in. (91.8 x 116.8 cm)
Front, lower left: A. GORKY 1926
Reverse, on canvas: Arshele GORKY / 1926 / [paraph] / New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David McCulloch (85.394)
Exhibitions
1936b New York
Guild Art Gallery, New York, Group Exhibition of Paintings, May 25–June 30, 1936, no. 7, as Greek Torso.
1941 San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky, August 9–24, 1941, as "Torso," dated 1926.
1951a New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky Memorial Exhibition, January 5–February 18, 1951, no. 3, ill. in b/w, p. 11; p. 46, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926. Traveled to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, March 4–April 22, 1951; San Francisco Museum of Art, California, May 9–July 9, 1951.
1952 Princeton
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, Arshile Gorky: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, October 6–26, 1952, no. 2, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926.
1975–76 Austin
University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin, Arshile Gorky: Drawings to Paintings, October 12–November 23, 1975. (Exhibition catalogue: University of Texas at Austin 1975), p. 103, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926, [exhibited in Austin and San Francisco only]. Traveled to: San Francisco Museum of Art, December 4, 1975–January 12, 1976; Neuberger Museum, Purchase College, State University of New York, February 10–March 14, 1976; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York, April 4–May 9, 1976.
1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 2, ill. in b/w, p. 63, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926. Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.
1991 San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Toward a New Museum: Recent Acquisitions in Painting and Sculpture, 1985–1991, 1991, p. 20, as "The Antique Cast".
2006 Fresno
Fresno Art Museum and the Armenian Museum (organizers), Fresno Art Museum, California, Vosdanik Manouk Adoian a.k.a. Arshile Gorky, April 7–June 4, 2006, no. 3, ill. in color, p. 21; p. 50, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926.
2009–10 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, October 15, 2009–January 10, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Taylor 2009a), pl. 3, ill. in color, p. 162; p. 386, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926. 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
Genauer 1936
E.G. [Emily Genauer]. "Paintings by Anna Walinska." New York World-Telegram, June 6, 1936, discussed, as Greek Torso.
Klein 1936
Klein, Jerome. "Review." New York Post, June 6 1936, discussed, as Greek Torso.
Sayre 1936
Sayre, Ann H. "Walinska, Forbes, Gorky and Others." Artnews (New York) 34 (June 6, 1936), discussed p. 9, as Greek Torso.
Burrows 1936a
Burrows, Carlyle. "A Group Show." New York Herald Tribune, May 31, 1936, discussed, p. E8, as Greek Torso.
Devree 1936c
Devree, Howard. "Ushered in With June—First Exhibition by Index of American Design—New Group and One-Man Shows." New York Times, May 31, 1936, discussed, sec. 10, p. 7, as Greek Torso.
Loftus 1952
Loftus, John. "Arshile Gorky: A Monograph." M.A. Thesis, Columbia University, New York, 1952, pl. I, ill. in b/w, as "The Antique Cast".
Schwabacher 1957
Schwabacher, Ethel. Arshile Gorky. Introduction by Meyer Schapiro. New York: The Macmillan Company for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1957. Monograph, fig. 5, ill. in b/w, p. 33, as "The Antique Cast," dated 1926.
Sarkisian 1958
Sarkisian, Mardiros. "Arshile Gorky—A Struggle for Recognition." Review of Arshile Gorky, by Ethel K. Schwabacher. Hoosharar (New York, Amherst and Northampton, MA) 45, no. 3 (February 1, 1958), ill. in b/w, p. 9, as "The Antique Cast".
Reiff 1961
Reiff, Robert F. "A Stylistic Analysis of Arshile Gorky's Art from 1943–1948." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1961, fig. 6, ill. in b/w, p. 284, as "The Antique Cast".
Kainen 1976
Kainen, Jacob. "Memories of Arshile Gorky." Arts Magazine (New York) 50, no. 7 (March 1976), discussed p. 96, as "The Antique Cast".
Waldman 1981
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. 22, as "The Antique Cast".
Jordan 1982a
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 pp. 31–32, 89, as "The Antique Cast".
Jordan 1982b
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. 68, ill. in b/w, pp. 192–93, as "The Antique Cast".
Seitz 1983
Seitz, William C. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press for the National Gallery of Art, 1983, fig. 45, ill. in b/w, as "The Antique Cast".
Beredjiklian 2007
Beredjiklian, Alexandre. Arshile Gorky: sept thèmes majeurs. Suresnes, France: Alphamédian & Johanet; Lisbon: Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, 2007. Monograph, discussed pp. 24, 33, 52, as "Le moulage antique".
Notes
The canvas was relined. The inscription on the reverse of the original canvas is known from a photograph provided by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Commentary

The composition is after Henri Matisse's (1869–1954) 1908 painting, L'Ilyssus du Parthénon (present whereabouts unknown), a color reproduction of which Gorky kept among his ephemera; an identical colorplate was published in the March 1927 issue of the magazine The Dial.1 This is the only known color illustration of the painting printed during Gorky's lifetime. Gorky's pupil and first biographer Ethel Kremer Schwabacher (1903–1984) suggested that he may have worked directly from a plaster cast of Figure A (possibly Illissos), from the west pediment of the Parthenon frieze, which was owned by the Grand Central School of Art in New York.2

The artist Jacob Kainen (1909–2001) would later recall first seeing Gorky's painting during a visit to his friend's studio in 1934; in his words: "[Gorky] pulled out The Antique Cast [P068], a painting so reminiscent of Matisse's Still Life with Greek Torso of 1908 that at first I almost believed it was the original Matisse, which I knew from reproductions. Then I realized that the composition and color scheme were entirely different—Gorky had absorbed Matisse without copying him. . . . He seemed pleased when I identified Matisse as the source."3

The painting was exhibited twice during Gorky's lifetime, in 1936 and 1941, as Greek Torso and Torso respectively. It is catalogued here in accordance with the earlier title.4 

Gorky often backdated his paintings and also frequently reworked the same canvas over many years. Here, "1926" inscribed at lower left likely refers to the former scenario. Stylistically, it is more likely that the painting was completed c. 1928–29. It should be noted that when he loaned the painting to the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1941 for his first solo museum exhibition, he gave it the date of 1926.5  

When the Austrian-American artist Mina Boehm Metzger (1877–1975), an early pupil and devoted patron of Gorky's, purchased this painting from Gorky's last lifetime dealer, Julien Levy (1906–1981), on July 5, 1947, Gorky received a total of $960 after the subtracted 20 percent sales commission.

1. The image appears between a "comment" by J.S.W. [James Sibley Watson] on Thomas Craven's essay, "Photography and Painting," and an essay by George Saintsbury, "Irony," The Dial LXXXII (March 1927): 181–87. J.S.W. [James Sibley Watson], "Comment," in ibid: 180; the comment is written in response to: Thomas Craven, "Photography and Painting," The Dial LXXIX (September 1925): 195–202.

2. Schwabacher's recollection dates to June 1950. Lloyd Goodrich, Data Sheets, Arshile Gorky Research Collection (1936–1993), Francis Mulhall Achilles Library, Archives, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 1950.

3. Jacob Kainen, "Memories of Arshile Gorky," ARTS Magazine 50, no. 7 (March 1976): 96.

4. Guild Art Gallery, New York, Group Exhibition of Paintings, May 25–June 30, 1936. Exhibition checklist.

5. Typed shipping manifest, August 5, 1941, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Archives.

Greek Torso, c. 1928–29, P068. Henri Matisse, Still-Life with Statue (L'Ilyssus du Parthénon), 1908, oil on canvas (24 x 28¾ in.). Original color reproduction from Gorky's library.
Henri Matisse, Still-Life with Statue (L'Ilyssus du Parthénon), 1908, oil on canvas (24 x 28¾ in.). Original color reproduction from Gorky's library.
Photo: © 2021 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Greek Torso, c. 1928–29, P068. After Phidias, Cast of Figure A (Ilissos?) from west pediment of Parthenon, possibly 1816, plaster cast (36 x 76 x 29 in.). Royal Academy of Arts, London (03/1490).
After Phidias, Cast of Figure A (Ilissos?) from west pediment of Parthenon, possibly 1816, plaster cast (36 x 76 x 29 in.). Royal Academy of Arts, London (03/1490).
Photo: Paul Highnam; © Royal Academy of Arts, London

After works by other artists: Henri Matisse

Related Work
Related Ephemera