[Figures near rocky coast]

1986.56.620.a
Date
Watermark
Whatman 1933: 1933 ENGLAND B
Dimensions
11 3/16 x 14 15/16 in. (28.4 x 37.9 cm)
Estate/Inventory Number
O 50
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.56.620.a. © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
Other Side
1986.56.620.b
Remarks
This watercolor of two figures near a rocky outcropping on the coast was almost certainly painted in Gloucester, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1934 when Rothko and his wife Edith Sachar (1912–1981) vacationed there with the Averys—Milton (1885–1965), Sally, and March—and Esther and Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974). An area of scraping in the right middle ground indicates that a form in the ocean—a dory, perhaps, rowed by a single figure—was minimized, presumably by the artist himself.
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