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Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné

Catalogue Entry

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verso

D1557a
[Drawing for Breton's "Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares"]
1945
Ink on paper
12 1/8 x 12 in. (30.8 x 30.5 cm)
Not inscribed
Private collection
Provenance
The artist
View Editions, New York (by 1946)
Possibly André Breton, New York (after spring 1947) . . .
Private collection (by 2017)
Private collection, Paris (2017)
Literature
Breton 1946
Breton, André. Young Cherry Trees secured against Hares / Jeunes Cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres. Translated by Edouard Roditi. New York, London, and Paris: View Editions, A. Zwemmer, and La Jeune Parque, 1946, ill. in b/w.
Mattison 2009
Matttison, Robert S. Arshile Gorky: Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafica, 2009. Monograph, ill. in color, p. 107, as "Untitled drawing reproduced in Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares".
Notes
The drawing is overmatted; the inscription information is known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation.

Commentary

In the spring of 1945, André Breton (1896–1966) asked Gorky to produce drawings to accompany his forthcoming book of poems which he titled Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares / Jeunes cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres. Published in 1946, in French with English translations by Edouard Roditi (1910–1992), the cover was designed by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968). The first edition of 1,000 copies featured two photo-mechanically reproduced line drawings by Gorky (D1557a and D1197). The second reproduction, illustrated on the last page, is of this drawing. The marking on the verso of the drawing (see D1557b), "5 1/4″," likely refers to the width of the reproduction. A limited deluxe edition was also issued in twenty-five copies, individually numbered and signed on the colophon page, and to each of which Gorky contributed two unique hand-colored drawings.

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