Study for Building of the United Nations

Copied Harold Weston, Study for Building of the United Nations, ca. 1949, pencil on paper, sheet: 7 × 5 in. (17.8 × 12.7 cm) mount: 18 × 30 1⁄2 in. (45.7 × 77.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Faith Weston, 1979.54.3

Artwork Details

Title
Study for Building of the United Nations
Artist
Date
ca. 1949
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 7 × 5 in. (17.8 × 12.7 cm) mount: 18 × 30 1⁄2 in. (45.7 × 77.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Faith Weston
Mediums
Mediums Description
pencil on paper
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture Exterior — industry — construction
  • Study
  • Cityscape — New York — New York
Object Number
1979.54.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1979.54.3

Artwork Description

On his own initiative and without a commission, Harold Weston chronicled the construction of the United Nations headquarters in six paintings he produced between 1949 and 1952. These studies offer a glimpse of his working process for creating the finished paintings, one of which hangs in this room. Weston offered to donate his series, hoping it would be exhibited in the Secretariat Building, but despite praise from such luminaries as Eleanor Roosevelt, the UN declined his gift. Officials may have viewed a more contemporary, avant-garde style like abstract expressionism more in keeping with the UN's future-minded spirit and mission. Weston subsequently gave the paintings to the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in 1955.