Portia in a Pink Blouse

1942

Guy P. Du Bois (American, 1884–1958)

62.3

Not currently on view

oil paint canvas painting

Link copied

Artwork Details

Artist

Guy P. Du Bois (American, 1884–1958)

Creation Date

1942

Creation Location

United States

Materials

oil on canvas

Object Types

paintings, oil paintings

Dimensions

40 x 30 in. (canvas) 44-3/4 x 34-3/4 x 2-1/2 in. (framed)

Accession Number

62.3

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Booth Tarkington

Collection

American Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945

Color Palette

Color Codes Copied

Provenance

Sold by Newhouse Galleries in New York as part of the Newton Booth Tarkington estate 1952; donated to the John Herron Art Institute, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in 1962

Gallery Labels

Executed energetically with thin layers of paint and a soft pink palette, this portrait displays a surprising modernity for Tarkington’s collection. The sitter, the little-known poet Portia Novello Le Brun, sits alone at a table and gazes pensively through a dramatic veil that obscures her face. Her fingers mark her place in her book, titled either All is Grass or All is Crass, penned by Le Brun herself. Though Tarkington had called modern art “noisy” and “violent,” he was “haunted” by Du Bois’s work and purchased this portrait from an exhibition at the John Herron Art Institute in 1944. It must have appealed to him because of its subject, a fellow writer. Tarkington owned portraits of at least eight authors.

Exhibition History

Exhibition Name

Venue

Dates

American Scene, 1920-1940 (America - Dream and Depression, 1920-1940)

Kunstverein Hamburg

January 11, 1980 - February 15, 1981

American Scene, 1920-1940 (America - Dream and Depression, 1920-1940)

Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst

November 9, 1980 - January 11, 1981

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