A cofounder of a women’s coat and suit company, Hirshfield began making art at age sixty-five. His focus and methods in painting extended from his skills as a tailor. Depicting mainly female nudes and women performers, Hirshfield often prepared full-scale drawings of his compositions and traced them onto his canvases as stencil patterns. This process remains visible in Stage Beauties: the pencil tracing marks can be seen through the paint layer. Influential gallery owner Sidney Janis propelled Hirshfield to fame after he discovered the self-taught artist’s work in New York.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Detail
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Stage Beauties
Artist:Morris Hirshfield (American (born Poland), 1872–1946 Brooklyn)
Date:1944
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:40 1/8 in. × 48 in. (101.9 × 121.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Carroll and Donna Janis, 2013
Accession Number:2013.1118
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): M. HIRSHFIELD . 1944
the artist, New York (from 1944; on consignment to Sidney Janis, New York in 1944); [Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1948–99; bequest of Sidney Janis to Carroll Janis]; Carroll and Donna Janis, New York (1999–2013; their gift to MMA)
New York. Julien Levy Gallery. "Morris Hirshfield, Paintings," November 21–December 7, 1944, no catalogue.
Los Angeles. James Vigeveno Galleries. "Morris Hirshfield," January 8–25, 1945, no. 11.
New York. Art of this Century. "Memorial Showing of the Last Paintings of Morris Hirshfield," February 11–March 1, 1947, no. 3 (lent by a private collection).
Paris. Galerie Maeght. "Hirshfield," January–February 1951, no. 16 (as "Les belles de la scène").
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Morris Hirshfield 1872–1946," February 23–March 26, 1951, no. 16 (as "Revuegirls," listed for sale).
New York. Sidney Janis Gallery. "Morris Hirshfield 1872–1946: American Primitive Painter," March 2–April 3, 1965, no. 29.
Coral Gables, Fla. Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. "Morris Hirshfield Paintings," December 6, 1979–January 13, 1980, no catalogue (lent by Sidney Janis Gallery, New York).
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Peggy Guggenheim's Other Legacy," March 6–May 3, 1987, no. 20 (lent courtesy of Sidney Janis Gallery, New York).
Venice. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. "Peggy Guggenheim's Other Legacy," October 1, 1987–January 31, 1988, no. 20.
New York. Sidney Janis Gallery. "Hirshfield Paintings and Drawings," February 17–March 19, 1994, not in catalogue.
New York. American Folk Art Museum. "Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: Perspectives on Patterning," March 14–June 7, 1998, no catalogue.
New York. American Folk Art Museum. "Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered," September 23, 2022–January 29, 2023, unnumbered cat. (p. 278).
"The Passing Shows." Art News 43 (December 1–14, 1944), p. 21.
Alonzo Lansford. "Hirschfield [sic] Memorial." Art Digest 21 (February 15, 1947), p. 14.
William Saroyan. Morris Hirshfield. Milan, 1976, p. 137, ill. p. 91 (color), lists it in the collection of Sidney Janis Gallery, New York.
Lesley Valdes. "Hirshfield: From Craft to Art." Miami News (December 18, 1979), p. C1, ill.
Theodore F. Wolff. "Peggy Guggenheim's Legacy." Christian Science Monitor (March 23, 1987), p. 25.
Frank Maresca, and Roger Ricco, with Lyle Rexer. American Self-Taught: Paintings and Drawings by Outsider Artists. New York, 1993, ill. p. 99 (color).
Jonathan Mandell. "In and Outside." Newsday (March 22, 1998), p. D29.
Jasper Sharp inPeggy Guggenheim & Frederick Kiesler: The Story of Art of This Century. Ed. Susan Davidson and Philip Rylands. Exh. cat., Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Venice, 2004, p. 344, fig. 171 (color).
Richard Meyer. "Changing Partners: Richard Meyer on 'Reimagining Modernism' at the Met." Artforum 54 (November 2015), p. 144, ill. p. 146 (color).
Roberta Smith. "A Trans-Atlantic View of Modernism." New York Times (January 9, 2015), p. C30, ill. (installation photo).
Karen Chernick. "Morris Hirshfield, A Once Obscure Self-Taught Artist, Is Having A Major Resurgence." artnews.com. June 7, 2022, ill. (color).
Roberta Smith. "Rising Again Through a Lavish Exhibition." New York Times (September 30, 2022), p. C11, ill. (color).
Richard Meyer. Master of the Two Left Feet: Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered. Exh. cat., American Folk Art Museum, New York. Cambridge, Mass., 2022, pp. 168, 213–17, 231 n. 179, p. 318, figs. 14.1 and 14.3 (color, overall and detail).
Mario Naves. "Dispatch: Left Feet Forward." newcriterion.org (December 1, 2022), ill. (color).
Susan Davidson in Richard Meyer. Master of the Two Left Feet: Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered. Exh. cat., American Folk Art Museum, New York. Cambridge, Mass., 2022, p. 278, no. MH42, ill. (color), notes alternative title as "Three Girls on Stage".
Roberta Smith. "Unexpected Delights and New Viewpoints." New York Times (December 11, 2022), p. AR22, ill. (color).
Karen Wilkin. "Morris Hirshfield’s Idiosyncratic World." Wall Street Journal (October 3, 2022), ill. p. A13 (color).
Cassie Packard. "Morris Hirshfield, American Folk Art Museum." Artforum 61 (January 2023), p. 129, describes this work as displaying the "theatricality of erotic femininity".
Georgia O'Keeffe (American, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 1887–1986 Santa Fe, New Mexico)
1927
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
