Study for 'Claveles'

Details

GEORGE TOOKER (1920-2011)
Study for 'Claveles'
signed 'Tooker' (lower right)—inscribed with title 'Claveles' (lower left)
pencil on paper
sight, 18 ¾ x 13 ¼ in. (47.6 x 33.7 cm.);
sheet, 20 x 14 ¼ in. (50.8 x 36.2 cm.)
Executed circa 1974.

Provenance

ACA Galleries, New York.
Private collection, New York, acquired from the above, 1981.
By descent to the present owner from the above, 2011.

Exhibited

New York, Marisa Del Re Gallery, Inc., February 6-March 2, 1985.

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Lot Essay

The present work is a study for Tooker's 1974 painting, Claveles (New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut). According to Thomas H. Garver, while in Spain in 1947 "Tooker recalls being very interested in potted plants...and was intrigued to see that even the poorest household in the barrio would invariably have at least one pot of flowers in the window. Claveles is the spanish word for carnations and these blossoms, spindly but carefully tended, soak up the sun—while we receive a masked but thoughtful glance from the shadows." (George Tooker, San Francisco, California, 1992, p. 102)

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