Sharrer’s paintings often ennoble working-class subjects through a studied precision evocative of the Renaissance artists she admired. This example presents a man in work clothes sitting on the edge of a fountain (based on one in Bryant Park). Apple tree branches enter the composition from both sides, framing him like a saint, while delicately rendered flowers sprout from the ground. Most unusual is the violet band running along the bottom of the composition, on which more flowers (now cut) appear with ladybugs, red onions, and a large blue butterfly, suggesting metamorphosis. Ripe with potential symbolism, this panoply of forms drawn from nature gives Man on a Fountain the appearance of a devotional image.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Man at the Fountain
Artist:Honoré Sharrer (American, West Point, New York 1920–2009 Washington, D.C.)
Date:1946
Medium:Oil on cardboard
Dimensions:17 5/8 × 12 3/4 in. (44.8 × 32.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Lincoln Kirstein, 1996
Accession Number:1996.404
Lincoln Kirstein, New York (1946–d. 1996; purchased from the artist; his bequest to MMA)
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Fourteen Americans," September 10–December 8, 1946, no. 128 (as "Man at the Fountain," lent by the artist).
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Vassar College. "Fourteen Americans," January 5–26, 1947, no. 128.
Palm Beach, Fla. Society of the Four Arts. "Fourteen Americans," February 7–March 7, 1947, no. 128.
Cincinnati Modern Art School. "Fourteen Americans," March 20–April 17, 1947, no. 128.
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Fourteen Americans," May 1–June 1, 1947, no. 128.
Baton Rouge. Louisiana State University Museum of Art. "Fourteen Americans," June 15–30, 1947, no. 128.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Artists Under Thirty-Six," March 24–April 30, 1950, no catalogue.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors," May 11–August 7, 1955, unnumbered cat. (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Kirstein).
New York Cultural Center. "Collectors Anonymous: Four Private New York Collections," June 27–September 3, 1972, unnumbered cat. (p. 9; dated 1942).
Charlottesville. University of Virginia Art Museum. "Humanism & Enigma : The Art of Honoré Sharrer," April 1–August 20, 2006, unnumbered cat. (fig. 11).
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. "Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer," February 10–May 21, 2017, no. 4 (as "Workman by a Fountain").
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. "Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer," June 30–September 3, 2017, no. 4 (as "Workman by a Fountain").
Northampton, Mass. Smith College Museum of Art. "Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer," September 21, 2017–January 7, 2018, no. 4 (as "Workman by a Fountain").
John S. Van Gilder. "Monocling Manhattan." Knoxville News-Sentinel (October 6, 1946), p. 37.
"19 Young Americans: Life Presents a Selection from the Country's Best Artists Under 36." Life 28 (March 20, 1950), p. 88, ill. (color), calls it "Man at Fountain".
Robert Beverly Hale. "Reports of the Departments: Special Loans." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (Summer 1951), p. 16, calls it "Man at Fountain".
Howard Devree. "Response to Today: Museum Surveys Reveals Artists' Reactions." New York Times (May 22, 1955), p. 135.
Erika Doss inHonoré Sharrer. Exh. cat., Spanierman Gallery. New York, 2002, pp. 12–13, ill. (color).
Erika Doss. "Sharrer's Tribute to the American Working People: Issues of Labor and Leisure in Post-World War II American Art." American Art 16 (Fall 2002), p. 70, fig. 14, calls it "Workman by a Fountain".
Kathryn M. Floyd. "'Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer'." Woman's Art Journal 38 (Fall/Winter 2017), p. 50.
Aaron Douglas (American, Topeka, Kansas 1899–1979 Nashville, Tennessee)
ca. 1935–39
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