Cobalt Night

1962

Lee Krasner

Artist, American, 1908 - 1984

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Lila Acheson Wallace

  • Dimensions

    overall: 237.5 x 409.9 cm (93 1/2 x 161 3/8 in.)
    framed: 242.6 x 415.1 cm (95 1/2 x 163 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1984.40.1

More About this Artwork

Shown from the knees up, a woman stands facing and looking at us with her head tilted a little to our left in this vertical portrait painting. She has pale skin, a heart-shaped face with rosy cheeks, and a rose-pink bow mouth. Thin, arched, sable-brown eyebrows frame her gray eyes. A wreath of pale pink flowers and curling white ostrich feathers crowns her long gray hair, which is piled high on her head. Loose curly tendrils brush both shoulders. Her glowing, silver satin gown is trimmed with delicate sheer lace around the wide, plunging neckline and sleeves, and has a pink sash around her narrow waist. Pearl bracelets adorn her wrists. She leans to her left, our right, to rest her left elbow against a waist-high, cinnamon-brown stone pedestal, which is decorated with a bronze-colored garland and bow on the side facing us. A ring of blue, yellow, red, and pink flowers, woven with strands of ivy, dangles in the hand resting on the pedestal. Her right hand hangs loosely by her side. Along the left edge of the dimly lit background, a tree with a thick trunk angles into the upper left corner. A smaller sapling grows just in front of it. On the right, bushes with olive and fern-green leaves dotted with lilac-purple flecks rise above the pedestal. Dark clouds fill most of the top third of the canvas but they part around her head to reveal the soft blue sky. The artist signed and dated the work in white in the lower right corner, “L. Vigée Le Brun 1782.”

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Studio of the artist [1908-1984]; (Robert Miller Gallery, Inc., New York); purchased 1984 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1984

  • Lee Krasner: A Retrospective, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk; Phoenix Art Museum; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1983-1985,

Bibliography

1984

  • Vetrocq, Marcia E. "An Independent Tack: Lee Krasner." Art in America 72 (May 1984): 140-141 repro., 142.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 192, repro.

1989

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 96, repro. 97.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 222, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Lee Krasner '62

Wikidata ID

Q20195704

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