Gertrude and George

Richard Merkin, Gertrude and George, 1979, pastel on paper, sheet: 27 ³⁄₄ x 39 ³⁄₈ in. (70.5 x 100.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1985.30.45, © 1979, Richard Merkin

Artwork Details

Title: Gertrude and George
Artist: Richard Merkin
Date: 1979
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet: 27 ³⁄₄ x 39 ³⁄₈ in. (70.5 x 100.0 cm)
Copyright: © 1979, Richard Merkin
Credit Line: Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Mediums: pastel
Mediums Description: pastel on paper
Classifications: Drawing
Subjects: Fantasy
Landscape — time — night
Figure group — male
Landscape — celestial — moon
Animal — cat
Object Number: 1985.30.45
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1985.30.45

Artwork Description

Richard Merkin was a quintessential New Yorker whose paintings and illustrations celebrated America of the 1920s and 1930s. A socialite and self-proclaimed dandy, Merkin did almost three hundred illustrations for The New Yorker. He contributed to Harper’s and the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and from 1988 to 1991, he wrote a monthly column called “Merkin on Style” for Gentlemen’s Quarterly. The ineffable wit that kept him in demand as an illustrator emerges in Gertrude and George, in which a cat smoking a cigarette smiles from his perch beside a cocktail glass.

Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014