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Lot Essay
Mother and Child is a stunning example of Milton Avery’s two most important subjects: the figure and the landscape. A tender scene of maternal love, the present work demonstrates the elegant balance of representation and abstraction, peaceful landscape and bold figures, that established Avery not only among the most important modernists of the early twentieth century, but also as a key influence on Post-War American art.
The present work is a modern reinterpretation of a centuries-old subject in the tradition of figurative painting. Initial compositions of the Madonna and Child by the likes of Giotto and Cimabue were carried on throughout the Renaissance. The subject later transitioned from the religious into the secular realm, being embraced by Impressionist painters of the late nineteenth century, notably Mary Cassatt. However, unlike those who came before him, Avery set out to render such seemingly mundane yet contemplative subjects in a modern lexicon of forms that fit together into an equally poetic arrangement. Of Avery’s ability to reinvent the familiar, Hilton Kramer wrote, “His wit preserves their freshness, while his elegance confers on them a kind of lyric beauty one normally expects to find in a subject encountered for the first time.” (as quoted in B.L. Grad, Milton Avery, Royal Oak, Michigan, 1981, p. 1)
Painted in 1943, the present work depicts a mother and son before a window, revealing an expansive seascape. Using his signature fields of matte color paired with simplified forms and subtle outlines, the view in Mother and Child foreshadows Avery’s later seascapes. Robert Hobbs’ description of these later works can also apply here: “detail is held to a minimum, and the relationships between land, sea, and sky are carefully balanced…Avery’s forms are soft and his surfaces are matte. The softness of the forms transforms each flat painting into an environment with a distinct atmosphere, an effect enhanced by the soft edges suggestive of intimacy.” (Milton Avery, New York, 1990, p. 202)
Alongside the lyrically simplified landscape, Avery reduces the figures and their expressions to the most basic elements, creating a sense of personality and depth primarily through shape and color. Such abstracted compositions from the 1940s, like Mother and Child, first attracted popular appeal for Avery’s work, and exerted a highly important influence on Post-War American artists, including Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman. According to Avery’s wife Sally Michel, these three artists often spent summers with the Averys in Massachusetts, and “Rothko and Gottlieb would come around and study his paintings and just absorb them by osmosis.” (as quoted in Milton Avery & The End of Modernism, Roslyn Harbor, New York, 2011, p. 32) Although Avery’s broad geometric masses of color influentially tended toward abstraction over the course of his career, he importantly never fully abandoned representational painting.
The present work exemplifies the unique quality of Avery’s most successful paintings—immediately familiar and relatable, yet also strikingly inventive in their play of color and form. The artist demonstrates his mastery of figuration by communicating maternal love through simplified physiognomy, heavily relying on the expressive color that established him as a source of inspiration for decades of artists to come.
The present work is a modern reinterpretation of a centuries-old subject in the tradition of figurative painting. Initial compositions of the Madonna and Child by the likes of Giotto and Cimabue were carried on throughout the Renaissance. The subject later transitioned from the religious into the secular realm, being embraced by Impressionist painters of the late nineteenth century, notably Mary Cassatt. However, unlike those who came before him, Avery set out to render such seemingly mundane yet contemplative subjects in a modern lexicon of forms that fit together into an equally poetic arrangement. Of Avery’s ability to reinvent the familiar, Hilton Kramer wrote, “His wit preserves their freshness, while his elegance confers on them a kind of lyric beauty one normally expects to find in a subject encountered for the first time.” (as quoted in B.L. Grad, Milton Avery, Royal Oak, Michigan, 1981, p. 1)
Painted in 1943, the present work depicts a mother and son before a window, revealing an expansive seascape. Using his signature fields of matte color paired with simplified forms and subtle outlines, the view in Mother and Child foreshadows Avery’s later seascapes. Robert Hobbs’ description of these later works can also apply here: “detail is held to a minimum, and the relationships between land, sea, and sky are carefully balanced…Avery’s forms are soft and his surfaces are matte. The softness of the forms transforms each flat painting into an environment with a distinct atmosphere, an effect enhanced by the soft edges suggestive of intimacy.” (Milton Avery, New York, 1990, p. 202)
Alongside the lyrically simplified landscape, Avery reduces the figures and their expressions to the most basic elements, creating a sense of personality and depth primarily through shape and color. Such abstracted compositions from the 1940s, like Mother and Child, first attracted popular appeal for Avery’s work, and exerted a highly important influence on Post-War American artists, including Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman. According to Avery’s wife Sally Michel, these three artists often spent summers with the Averys in Massachusetts, and “Rothko and Gottlieb would come around and study his paintings and just absorb them by osmosis.” (as quoted in Milton Avery & The End of Modernism, Roslyn Harbor, New York, 2011, p. 32) Although Avery’s broad geometric masses of color influentially tended toward abstraction over the course of his career, he importantly never fully abandoned representational painting.
The present work exemplifies the unique quality of Avery’s most successful paintings—immediately familiar and relatable, yet also strikingly inventive in their play of color and form. The artist demonstrates his mastery of figuration by communicating maternal love through simplified physiognomy, heavily relying on the expressive color that established him as a source of inspiration for decades of artists to come.