Symphonic Poem

Mabel Pugh, Symphonic Poem, ca. 1927-1929, linoleum cut on paper, sheet: 13 ³⁄₈ × 9 in. (34.0 × 22.9 cm), irregular image: 7 ³⁄₄ × 6 in. (19.7 × 15.2 cm), irregular, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the North Carolina Museum of Art (Gift of the artist, 1977), 2020.4.8

Artwork Details

Title: Symphonic Poem
Artist: Mabel Pugh
Date: ca. 1927-1929
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet: 13 ³⁄₈ × 9 in. (34.0 × 22.9 cm), irregular image: 7 ³⁄₄ × 6 in. (19.7 × 15.2 cm), irregular
Credit Line: Transfer from the North Carolina Museum of Art (Gift of the artist, 1977)
Mediums Description: linoleum cut on paper
Classifications: Graphic Arts
Print
Subjects: Architecture Interior
Object — art object — sculpture
Performing arts — music
Figure group
Object Number: 2020.4.8
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2020.4.8

Artwork Description

Between 1926 and 1936, Mabel Pugh explored New York from her home in Midtown Manhattan while working as an illustrator for books and magazines. Her sketchbooks from those years are filled with studies capturing the excitement and wonder of the bustling city. She developed some of these drawings into relief prints, including Symphonic Poem, showing a concert in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The dark figure looming behind the crowds is a seated statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (reigned 1390--53 BCE), still on view in the museum's Egyptian art galleries.