1966.40: Study for "False Peace Spectre;" verso: Sketch
Drawings
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1966.40
- People
-
David Smith, American (Decatur, IN 1906 - 1965 Bennington, VT)
- Title
- Study for "False Peace Spectre;" verso: Sketch
- Classification
- Drawings
- Work Type
- drawing
- Date
- 1945
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/308869
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Black ink, blue-gray and purple watercolor, graphite, and white gouache on cream wove paper, scorched and repaired with notebook paper patch; verso: blue-gray watercolor and graphite
- Dimensions
- 25.3 x 18.6 cm (9 15/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
- Signed: blue-gray watercolor, u.r.: DS1945; and black ink l.r.: [delta sigma, for D.S.] 1945
- inscription: in image, blue-gray watercolor and black ink, in artist's hand: [watercolor:] Spectre with capital peace / DS1945; [black ink:] larger -> / stainless / hooks; [black ink:] lower; [watercolor:] [plugW]; [watercolor:] Bz [=bronze]; [watercolor:] Bz ->; [watercolor:] Cast Bz
- inscription: verso, l.r., graphite: 1785-9
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
- 1966.40
- 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.
Descriptions
- Commentary
- The figure with the string instrument may relate to "Cello Player," a 1946 sculpture.
Publication History
- 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. 59, fig. 40, p. 60; illustrated p. 13
- Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 234, pp. 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 McCarthy, David Smith's Spectres of War and Peace, Art Journal, College Art Association of America (New York, 2010), Vol. 69, no. 3; pp. 20-39, p. 31, 33, ill.
Exhibition History
- 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
- Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2006 - 10/22/2006
- 32Q: 1320 Social Realism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/27/2022
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu