1966.36: Studies for "Home of the Welder:" Wife as Locomotive Parts

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1966.36

People

David Smith, American (Decatur, IN 1906 - 1965 Bennington, VT)

Title

Studies for "Home of the Welder:" Wife as Locomotive Parts

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1945

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/308846

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink, blue-gray watercolor, brown wash, white gouache, collage, graphite, and touches of red chalk on cream wove paper

Dimensions

actual: 25.4 x 18.5 cm (10 x 7 5/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: in image, black ink and graphite, in artist's hand: [black ink:] Home of the Welder / the Woman; [black ink:] wife as locomotive / parts; [black ink:] mirror / reflection; [black ink:] opposite / main / wall; [black ink:] locomotive / figure; [black ink:] bedroom / backside; [graphite:] vertical with / 1/4 plate / & 1/4 + 1 four / section; [graphite:] ass picture framed / game room desire woman framed / tits millstone ++ - rug / tit flower to gable & across room; [graphite:] flagpole & flag / [black ink:] totem
• inscription: verso, l.r., graphite: 1785-3

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

David Smith, Bolton Landing, New York, gift; to Lois Orswell, Pomfret Center, Connecticut, 1961, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1966.

NOTE: See correspondence from Mrs. Orswell in curatorial file for 1966.16: "Some time ago, David gave me the sketches saying they were early ones and would I give them to the Fogg "some time."... I think my name should not be used for the purposes of labels etc., and that they should be "gift of David Smith"."

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of David Smith

Copyright

© The Estate of David Smith / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Accession Year

1966

Object Number

1966.36

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Edward F. Fry, David Smith, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY, 1969), reproduced, figures 22, 22A, 22B
• Jeanne L. Wasserman, Six Sculptors and Their Drawings, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1971), no. 34
• Karen Wilkin, David Smith: The Formative Years, Sculpture and Drawings from the 1930's and 1940's, exh. cat., Edmonton Art Gallery (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1981), no. 56, fig. 32, p. 54
• Karen Wilkin, David Smith, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1984), reproduced p. 38, fig. 37
• Karen Wilkin, "David Smith: A Sculptor Draws", Master Drawings (Spring 2002), vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 43-56, p. 46, fig. 6
• Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 231, fig. 77, pp. 169 (repr. color), 214, 267 note 76, 349, 379
• Richard Mulholland, "Of Dreams and Visions and Things Not Known: Looking at David Smith's Drawing Media" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2003), Unpublished, pp. 1-43 passim
• David Smith, exh. cat., Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (Paris, 2006), repr. p. 104
• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 222, repr.

Exhibition History

• Six Sculptors and Their Drawings, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/07/1971 - 06/07/1971
• David Smith: The Formative Years, Sculpture and Drawings from the 1930's and 1940's, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, 01/06/1981 - 03/01/1981
• David Smith: "This work is my identity", Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/03/1995 - 05/05/1996
• Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/21/2002 - 02/16/2003
• Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2006 - 10/22/2006

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