[Girl on red sofa]

1986.43.206.a
Watermark
Whatman 1933: N 1933 ENGLAND B
Dimensions
15 5/16 x 22 3/8 in. (38.9 x 56.8 cm)
Estate/Inventory Number
1085.25–27
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.206.a. © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
Remarks
On the other side of this sheet is a watercolor of a wharf in Gloucester, Massachusetts, that Rothko almost certainly painted during the summer of 1934 when he 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). Rothko probably painted this interior scene of a girl or woman on a high-backed cabriole sofa subsequently, possibly after his return to Brooklyn, New York, at the end of the summer of 1934. The number assigned during Rothko’s inventory of 1968/1969, which erroneously signifies a creation date of 1925–1927, was inscribed on the other side of the sheet, indicating the artist’s preference for the portrait on this side.
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