[Harvard mural study]

Date
Dimensions
7 x 7 11/16 in. (17.8 x 19.5 cm)
Estate/Inventory Number
91.81
Collection
Collections of Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
Remarks
In 1960 Wassily Leontief, head of the Harvard Society of Fellows, invited Rothko to consider donating a selection of works to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Negotiations began in earnest in the fall of 1961 and continued into early 1962, at which point Rothko began work on a mural cycle conceived for the penthouse dining room of the university’s recently built Holyoke Center. On December 27, 1962, six large canvases—now referred to as Panel One through Panel Six of the Harvard cycle—were delivered to the Holyoke Center (Anfam 737–742). In January 1963, Rothko traveled to Cambridge and selected and arranged five of them in the room, three as a triptych (Anfam 737–739, fig. 1). Rothko ultimately decided not to include the sixth panel in the arrangement. The other five panels were hung in 1964.

In preparation for this work, Rothko had moved into a new studio on First Avenue in New York at the beginning of January 1962 and had temporary walls constructed to replicate the layout of the Holyoke Center dining room. He was reported to have been at work on the cycle, presumably painting on canvas, by February 1962. He made at least six smaller-scale studies on canvas (Anfam 731–736) in addition to the six that were delivered to Harvard in December 1962 [James E. B. Breslin, Mark Rothko: A Biography (Chicago and London, 1993), 649n19; Karyn Esielonis, “The History of Rothko’s Harvard Murals,” in Marjorie B. Cohn, ed., Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals (Cambridge, 1988), 12n13].

Before initiating work on canvas—presumably during the first two months of 1962 given the ongoing negotiations with Harvard—Rothko made a group of preliminary studies on paper, including this small watercolor. The color scheme of the current work, blue on crimson construction paper, does not match any single canvas from the Harvard cycle. Compositionally, it most closely resembles Panel Two. Panel Two has undergone a color shift (see note that follows) and now reads as black on blue-gray rather than black on a dark crimson background (cf. figs. 2, 3). The current work also resembles a pair of full-size mural “sketches,” one black on red (fig. 4) and one red on red (fig. 5), each of which is understood to be a study for Panel Two. See Related Works on Paper for additional watercolor and ink studies for the Harvard project.

Note: All six panels of the Harvard murals cycle have undergone a color shift since their creation (pigment analysis revealed the presence of light-sensitive lithol red). Unless otherwise noted, all images of the panels reflect the current state of the works.
[Harvard mural study]
1. Harvard mural triptych—Panel One, Panel Two, Panel Three—installed in Holyoke Center, Harvard University, 1964. Photograph Courtesy Harvard Art Museums © President and Fellow of Harvard College.
[Harvard mural study]
2. Mark Rothko, Panel Two (Harvard Mural Triptych), 1962, egg tempera and distemper on canvas, 105 1/8 x 180 5/8 in., Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from Harvard University, Gift of the Artist, 2011.638.2, © Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. [Anfam 738] Image does not reflect current state of work.
[Harvard mural study]
3. Mark Rothko, Panel Two (Harvard Mural Triptych), 1962, egg tempera and distemper on canvas, 105 1/8 x 180 5/8 in., Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from Harvard University, Gift of the Artist, 2011.638.2, © Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Anfam 738]
[Harvard mural study]
4. Mark Rothko, Untitled (Harvard Mural sketch), 1962, oil on canvas, 81 1/4 x 73 1/4 in., National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.172, © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. [Anfam 734]
[Harvard mural study]
5. Mark Rothko, Untitled (Harvard Mural sketch), 1962, oil on canvas, 104 7/8 x 95 5/8 in., National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.169, © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. [Anfam 735]
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