Gertrude and George

Richard Merkin, Gertrude and George, 1979, pastel on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1985.30.45, © 1979, Richard Merkin
Copied 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
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
Mediums Description
pastel on paper
Classifications
Subjects
  • Fantasy
  • Landscape — time — night
  • Landscape — celestial — moon
  • Animal — cat
  • Figure group — male
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