After flirting with near-abstraction in 1949 and 1950, de Kooning returned to his favorite motif, the female figure. This small painting was made in the summer of 1953, when the artist worked at the East Hampton house of the dealers Ileana Sonnabend and Leo Castelli. He inscribed it to Muriel and Jay Steinberg.
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Inscription: Inscribed (lower right): to Muriel and Jay/ with best wishes from/ Bill
Muriel Kallis Steinberg and Jay Steinberg, Chicago (1953–his d. 1954; received as a gift from the artist); Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman (1954–2006; her gift to MMA)
Caracas. Museo de Bellas Artes. "Cuatro maestros contemporáneos: Giacometti, Dubuffet, De Kooning, Bacon," April–May 1973, unnumbered cat.
Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogatá. "Cuatro maestros contemporáneos: Giacometti, Dubuffet, De Kooning, Bacon," May 30–June 28, 1973, unnumbered cat.
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. "Cuatro maestros contemporáneos del arte figurativo: Giacometti, Dubuffet, De Kooning, Bacon," July 19–August 24, 1973, unnumbered cat.
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. "4 mestres contemporâneos: Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon," September 13–October 7, 1973, no. K/5.
Rio de Janeiro. Museu de Arte Moderna. "4 mestres contemporâneos: Giacometti, Dubuffet, De Kooning, Bacon," October 15–November 4, 1973, no. K/5.
Chicago. Richard Gray Gallery. "Willem de Kooning, 1941–1959," October 4–November 16, 1974, no. 19.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "An American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection," May 21–September 27, 1981, unnumbered cat. (p. 119).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Willem de Kooning: The Early Years," March 14–August 14, 1989, no catalogue (lent as a promised gift from The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection).
New York. Pace Gallery. "Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet: The Women," November 30, 1990–January 5, 1991, unnumbered cat. (pl. 24).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 17, 2007–February 3, 2008, extended to March 2, 2008, no. 45.
Eleanor Page. "She Lives in an Art Museum." Chicago Tribune (September 13, 1964), sec. 5, p. 3.
E. A. Carmean Jr. inAmerican Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist. Exh. cat., National Art Gallery. Washington, D.C., 1978, fig. 19 (visible in photo taken by Hans Namuth in1953 of de Kooning's porch–studio at the Castelli residence, East Hampton, NY).
Judith Wolfe. Willem de Kooning: Works from 1951–1981. Exh. cat., Guild Hall. East Hampton, N. Y., 1981, fig. 2 (Namuth 1953 photo).
Robert Rosenblum et al. Willem de Kooning. Exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1984, ill. p. 218 (Namuth 1953 photo).
Eugene Victor Thaw. "The Abstract Expressionists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 44 (Winter 1986–87), p. 45, fig. 37 (color).
William Agee. "Muriel Kallis Newman–Life Among the Moderns." Architectural Digest 43 (December 1986), p. 70.
Brian O'Doherty. American Masters: The Voice and the Myth. New York, 1988, ill. p. 131 (studio photo).
Mildred Glimcher. Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet : The Women. Exh. cat., Pace Gallery. New York, 1990, ill. p. 30 (studio photo), colorpl. 24.
Barbara Hess. Willem de Kooning, 1904–1997: Content as a Glimpse. Cologne, 2004, ill. p. 93 (Namuth 1953 photo).
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan. De Kooning: An American Master. New York, 2004, ill. p. 333 (Namuth 1953 photo).
Nan Rosenthal in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 2005–2006." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 64 (Fall 2006), p. 62, ill. (color).
Richard Shiff inAbstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow, Lisa Mintz Messinger, and Nan Rosenthal. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 143–45, no. 45, ill. (color).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, ill. p. 130 (color).
Willem de Kooning (American (born The Netherlands), Rotterdam 1904–1997 East Hampton, New York)
ca. 1949
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