Lot Details
Lot 2478
Franz Josef Kline
1910-1962
Washington Square, 1940
Oil on canvas, three-fold screen between glass
Each section 71 x 22 3/4 inches
Exhibited:
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Franz Kline: 1910-1962, October 1 - November 24, 1968
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, December 17, 1968 - January 26, 1969
San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, February 21 - March 30, 1969
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, April 12 - May 30, 1969, cat. no. 7, ill, p. 18
The extreme financial difficulties endured by Franz Kline in the 1940s were in part alleviated by the support of two important early patrons, I. David Orr, a Long Island businessman, and Kline's physician, Dr. Theodore J. Edlich, Jr. Dr. Edlich commissioned several family portraits as well as the present work, which was employed as a privacy screen in front of the doctor's examining table. "On the back are small scenes of Village characters painted in a style reminiscent of [the British illustrator,] Phil May. Originally, Kline had pasted prints of these subjects on the screen but they fell off as he carried it to Edlich's office." [Harry F. Gaugh, The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline, Cincinnati Art Museum, 1985, p. 46)
Kline depicted Washington Square on at least one other occasion, but he soon dropped the subject from his repertoire.
Estate of Theodore and Dede Edlich
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