Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné

Catalogue Entry

enlarge

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, Paris (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 a group of drawings to accompany a forthcoming anthology of his poetry which he titled Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares / Jeunes cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres (Breton 1946). The book was published in 1946, in a bilingual edition 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.

Related Work