Bibliothèque (Library) | Yale University Art Gallery

1926

Not on view

In the 1920s, Yale-educated Gerald Murphy, a member of the circle of European and American expatriates in France, astonished critics with his paintings of machines and American consumer products. Of the seven surviving paintings from his career of less than a decade, Bibliothèque is the most personal. Rendered in colors that recall leathers from the Murphy family’s Mark Cross Company, it incorporates references to his father’s library. In an era of change and uncertainty following the First World War, Bibliothèque portrays a world of timeless values—literature, classical architecture, and philosophy.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 72 1/2 × 52 5/8 in. (184.15 × 133.668 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with a gift from Alice Kaplan in memory of Allan S. Kaplan, B.A. 1957, and with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund
Accession Number: 2006.115.1
Geography: Probably made in Paris, France
Culture: American
Period: 20th century
Classification: Paintings
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Gerald Murphy (1888–1964), Paris, 1926; William M. (1916–1988) and Honoria Murphy Donnelley (1917–1998), to 1986; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1986; SBC Communications, Inc., Texas, collection of twentieth-century art, 1986–2006; sold to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2006

Bibliography

American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 204–5, no. 95, ill

Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 253, 401, pl. 240

Deborah Rothschild, ed., Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 59, 63–64, 84, 101, 114, 140–41, ill

Barkley L. Hendricks, "Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006," in "Photography at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 206, ill

Object copyright

In Copyright

Additional information

Object/Work type

abstract (general art genre), interior architecture, still lifes

Subject

Greek books globes (cartographic spheres) libraries (buildings) maps

Technical metadata and APIs

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