 | "Bibliothqèue," a rare painting by Gerald Murphy (1912 B.A.) recently acquired by the Yale Art Gallery, is considered one of the American artist's most personal works. |
The Yale University Art Gallery has purchased "Bibliothèque" (19261927), a rare work by Yale-educated American artist Gerald Murphy (18881964).
"Bibliothèque" is one of only seven Murphy paintings that are known to survive out of an oeuvre that includes only 14 paintings.
Described as the epitome of the sophisticated, cultured "American in Paris" in the 1920s, Murphy painted for less than a decade, using a style that lies midway between realism and abstraction.
"The Yale University Art Gallery is thrilled to have acquired 'Bibliothèque,'" says Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale Art Gallery. "Murphy, a 1912 graduate of Yale, was, along with his wife Sara and classmate Cole Porter, among the first young Americans to move abroad and fully immerse themselves in the active early 20th-century culture of Paris. There, they and their compatriots made many pioneering contributions to contemporary art across numerous disciplines.
"When united with other key modern works in our collection, and with the rich archival material at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 'Bibliothèque' will add to our understanding of the transatlantic dialogue that was so crucial to the development of avant-garde visual art, music, theater, dance and literature," he adds.
Helen Cooper, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the gallery, notes: "Murphy's work -- more than that of any other American artist of the period -- blends American vigor and optimism with French elegance and refinement, forming a bridge from the modernism of [Fernand] Léger to the work of his American contemporaries, such as Stuart Davis and Charles Demuth. 'Bibliothèque' is a gem, which will enrich the gallery's already great strength in modernism."
"Bibliothèque" was inspired in part by the Purist principles of Amédée Ozenfant and Le Corbusier, who sought to create an art of architectonic classicism following the chaos of World War I. It is considered the most personal of Murphy's extant paintings, incorporating several items -- architectural elements, books, a globe, a bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson and a magnifying glass -- that recall the specific contents of his father's library.
In 1921, Murphy, who was the heir to the Mark Cross leather fortune, moved to France with his wife, Sara, and their three children, in order to live free of the social restrictions imposed by their wealthy families. The Murphys became the center of a circle of American expatriates and Europeans who gathered at "Villa America," their home in Cap d'Antibes, in the south of France. Notable among these friends were John dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso and Léger. Inspired by the Murphys' lifestyle, F. Scott Fitzgerald modeled Dick and Nicole Diver, the protagonists of "Tender Is the Night," on the couple and dedicated the novel to them.
Encouraged by Picasso and inspired by the revolutionary aesthetic of Juan Gris, Georges Braque and Léger, Murphy cast aside his study of landscape architecture in favor of painting, quickly mastering modernist principles and the early theories of abstraction. His work was soon included in avant-garde exhibitions and received wide praise. He ceased painting when family hardship forced the Murphys to return to the United States in 1932.
The acquisition of "Bibliothèque" is supported by the Leonard C. Hanna Jr., B.A. 1913, Fund. Hanna and the artist were close friends during their years at Yale. In addition, a new gift to the gallery from Alice Kaplan, in memory of her late husband and governing board member, Allan S. Kaplan, B.A. 1957, will fund half of the purchase.
T H I S
Gallery acquires rare painting
by Yale-educated artist
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