Double Portrait

Alfonso Ossorio, Double Portrait, 1944, watercolor and black ink on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.70
Alfonso Ossorio, Double Portrait, 1944, watercolor and black ink on paper, sheet and image: 1420 in. (35.550.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.70

Artwork Details

Title
Double Portrait
Date
1944
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet and image: 1420 in. (35.550.8 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
watercolor and black ink on paper
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Portrait group
  • Portrait male — Collamore, Bacon
  • Portrait male — Darbey, James
Object Number
1993.70

Artwork Description

This elegant, hallucinatory drawing combines grotesque anatomical fragments, realistic portraiture, and surrealistic fantasy. Ossorio’s state of mind can only be described as tormented, induced by his World War II experiences, a recent divorce, and his uneasy acknowledgement of homosexuality. Double Portrait is based on his memories of Camp Ellis, Illinois, where he suffered a life-threatening accident and documented injured soldiers and prisoners of war as a medical illustrator.

Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2009

Works by this artist (1 item)

Alfonso Ossorio, Double Portrait, 1944, watercolor and black ink on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.70
Double Portrait
Date1944
watercolor and black ink on paper
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

Aaron Sopher, The Oriole, 1934, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.180
The Oriole
Date1934
pen and ink and watercolor on paper
Not on view
John Banks, To Much Fun? In the Wrong Place, 1980s, colored pencil, watercolor and felt-tipped pen on poster board, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 1997.124.104
To Much Fun? In the Wrong Place
Date1980s
colored pencil, watercolor and felt-tipped pen on poster board
Not on view
William H. Johnson, Portrait of William H. Johnson, ca. 1930-1938, pen and ink and watercolor with pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.490
Portrait of William H. Johnson
Artist
Dateca. 1930-1938
pen and ink and watercolor with pencil on paper
Not on view
Robert Andrew Parker, "Liberty does not consist in mere general declarations of the rights of men. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action."--Woodrow Wilson, Address, Independence Hall, July 4, 1914. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1956, pen and ink and watercolor on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.234
Liberty does not consist in mere general declarations of…
Date1956
pen and ink and watercolor on paper mounted on paperboard
Not on view