Milton Avery, (1885-1965)

Untitled (Portrait of David Burliuk and His Wife) 36 x 28in

Untitled (Portrait of David Burliuk and His Wife)
signed 'Milton Avery' (lower right) and inscribed 'God / Bless our Home' (upper right)
oil on canvas
36 x 28in
Painted circa 1939.

Provenance
The artist.
Valentine Gallery, New York.
Collection of Roy Neuberger, acquired from the above.
A University Museum, gift of the above.
Harcourts Gallery, San Francisco.
Mr. and Mrs. Len Aronson, Nashville, Tennessee, acquired from the above, 1994.

Milton Avery was born in 1885 in the small village of Sand Bank, New York, later incorporated as the town of Altmar. Following his family's move to Wilston Station, Connecticut, a decade later, Avery signed on for a course in lettering at the Connecticut League of Art Students in 1905. He then continued his arts education at the School of the Art Society of Hartford, Connecticut, until the age of thirty-four. By 1925 the artist arrived in New York City and soon cast off the traditional approach to painting that pervaded the Hartford art scene. He embraced the various artistic styles that circled the city, emulating characteristics of realism in his approach to both subject matter and color. (B. Haskell, Milton Avery, New York, 1982, p. 29)

What followed was a time of great evolution for the artist. In 1935 he secured representation with the dealer Valentine Dudensing, of Valentine Gallery, marking a turning point in his career which invited commercial success and greater achievement for the artist. It was during this time that Avery developed his artistic style which now focused more on abstraction, mastering his signature color harmonies that today characterize his body of work. (ibid, p. 69)

The present work, painted circa 1939, depicts Avery's close friend and a fellow artist, David Burliuk, and his wife Marussia. It is believed to be a study for a similar work, The Dessert, painted in 1939, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Both works depict Burliuk and his wife, likely at their home in Long Island where Avery was a frequent guest. B. Haskell writes, "Due to Avery's lifelong habit of sketching everything around him, his subject matter became a kind of diary of his activities. Although he enjoyed the company that frequently gathered at his apartment. . . . he seldom contributed to the conversations and his proclivity for sketching rather than talking on these occasions became well known." (ibid, p. 30)

Avery began to rely on sketches as a key component in his artistic process. As a draftsman he recorded the world around him, from landscapes to portraits, using these pages as blueprints for larger, more accomplished oils. These pencil sketches usually inspired watercolors of the same subject and were sometimes selected by the artist many years later, evolving into impressive canvases. (ibid, p. 30) It is likely the present work was produced from sketches Avery executed while at the Burliuk's home, inspiring a series of oils as seen here with the present lot and The Dessert.

The two compositions bear a striking resemblance. Burliuk is framed with reddened ears on each side of his head and his electric blue eyes gaze outward at the viewer. In his right hand he holds what appears to be a green drinking glass, soon to be raised in a toast to his guests. Marussia is seen to his right with her head tilted upward in affection. The portrait conveys the sentiment which was incised by the artist at upper right: 'God Bless this Home.'

By 1944 Avery was awarded his first solo exhibition at the Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, D.C. The following year both Rosenberg and Durand-Ruel galleries held exhibitions of the artist's work in their fifty-seventh street galleries elevating the artist's reputation and surmounting his position among his contemporaries until his death in 1965. (ibid, p. 77)