Reverse, on canvas, center right: ↑ / TOP / GORKY / Red 1928-9
Commentary
Etta (1895–1980) and M. Martin Janis (1892–1969), the first owners of the painting, were important early patrons of Gorky's. Their introduction to the artist was made through M. Martin's brother Sidney Janis (1896–1989), who later became one of the postwar era's most important art dealers and represented the Arshile Gorky Estate after opening his New York gallery in 1948.
In a letter dated November 26, 1949, to fellow Gorky patron Mina Boehm Metzger (1877–1975), M. Martin Janis recalled: "My wife and I knew [Gorky] well and greatly grieved at his untimely passing. In our collection, there are 5 examples of Gorky's [works] all acquired in 1934, when we first met him."1
1. Letter from M. Martin Janis to Mina Boehm Metzger, November 26, 1949, AGF Archives. Four of the five works in question have been conclusively identified: D0174ab, P074, P120, P125.