
Reverse not seen
Commentary
The titling of this painting has a less complicated history than the marjority of the seventeen paintings that Joseph H. Hirshhorn purchased directly from the artist between 1941 and 1943. The variation in the Hirshhorn titles begins with a list of the collector's purchases, thought to be composed by the artist's wife Agnes "Mougouch" Gorky (1921–2013) and dated March 20, 1943, on which the painting is titled Portrait of My Sister, Vartoosh.1 When the painting entered the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1966, it was assigned the title Portrait of Vartoosh. While preparing the Hirshhorn’s 1979 exhibition dedicated to the museum’s collection of Gorky paintings and drawings, correspondence with the artist's nephew Karlen Mooradian (1935–1990) further suggested that the painting was a portrait of his mother (the artist's younger sister) Vartoosh Mooradian (née Adoian; 1906–1991).2 The title Portrait of Vartoosh was accordingly retained for its 1979 showing.3
The painting’s title, as it appears here, is based on Jim M. Jordan’s catalogue raisonné, where it is published as Portrait of Vartoosh, yet set within quotes, indicating—erroneously—that it was a lifetime designation.4 Joseph Hirshhorn later claimed that Gorky had never provided him with titles for the works he had acquired, but the 1943 checklist presents the possibility that Gorky did assign a title to this work, namely, Portrait of My Sister, Vartoosh.5
Gorky backdated the painting to 1922 at the time of Hirshhorn's purchase in the early 1940s.
1. “Sold to Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn,” March 20, 1943, AGF Archives. Letter from Agnes Gorky Phillips to Phyllis Rosenzweig, November 12, 1977, AGF Archives. On Agnes's authorship, see: Phyllis Rosenzweig, “Catalog,” in Arshile Gorky: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Smithsonian Institution, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), 8, fn. 1.
2. Rosenzweig, “Catalog,” 8.
3. Rosenzweig, "Illustrations and Text," 20.
4. 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), 238–39.
5. “Gorky never gave me titles or a bill for these pictures and if he did I do not remember receiving one.” Letter from Joseph H. Hirshhorn to Wolfgang Schwabacher, February 21, 1949, AGF Archives.