Mending

Isabel Bishop, Mending, 1945, oil on fiberboard, 25 1⁄8 x 16 7⁄8 in. (63.7 x 42.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.7

Artwork Details

Title
Mending
Artist
Date
1945
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
25 1⁄8 x 16 7⁄8 in. (63.7 x 42.8 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on fiberboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Occupation — domestic — sewing
  • Figure male — full length
  • Architecture Interior — domestic — house
Object Number
1986.6.7
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.6.7

Artwork Description

“I have worked for more than twenty years in a studio at the north west corner of Union Square, New York. I have noticed regular denizens of the Square who, sitting on the benches or on the fountain, eating, sewing or rearranging their worldly goods in paper bundles, seem to be leading the most private of lives, entirely oblivious to the public character of the place. The not-beautiful forms of the fountain seem . . . to make a throne for the old man sewing his trousers; his billowing old overcoat [becomes] a robe.”

--Isabel Bishop


Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014

Works by this artist (98 items)

View all artworks
William T. Wiley, Studio Space, 1975, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of James A. and Marsha Perry Mateyka, 2018.19
Studio Space
Artist
Date1975
acrylic and charcoal on canvas
On view
Image Not Available
Torturer
Artist
Date1989
color etching
Not on view
Image Not Available
Eerie Grotto Okini
Artist
Date1982
color woodcut
Not on view
William T. Wiley, O.T.P.A.G. for P.G., 1981, color etching, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2003.68.28, © 1981, William T. Wiley
O.T.P.A.G. for P.G.
Artist
Date1981
color etching
Not on view

Exhibitions

Media - 1986.6.100 - SAAM-1986.6.100_2 - 135134
Modern American Realism: Highlights from the Sara Roby Foundation Collection
Smithsonian American Art Museum
This exhibition presents some of the most treasured paintings and sculpture from SAAM’s permanent collection, including artworks by Will Barnet, Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, George Tooker, among others.