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.
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Detail
Artwork Details
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Title:Stage Beauties
Artist:Morris Hirshfield (American (born Poland), 1872–1946 Brooklyn)
Date:1944
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:40 × 48 in. (101.6 × 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, 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 Painting of Morris Hirshfield," February 11–March 1, 1947, no. 3 (lent by a private collection).
Paris. Galerie Maeght. "M. Hirshfield (1987–1945)," 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 31, 1987–January 10, 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 22, 2022–January 27, 2023, unnumbered cat. (p. 278).
"Exhibition, Julien Levy's." 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. 9 (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).
Carroll Janis. Hirshfield Paintings and Drawings. Exh. cat., Sidney Janis Gallery. New York, 1994, unpaginated, no. 29.
American Self-Taughts. Exh. cat., Sidney Janis Gallery. New York, 1998, unpaginated, no. 11.
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. 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. "Catalog of Works." Master of the Two Left Feet: Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered. 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".
Mark Rothko (American (born Russia, now Latvia), Dvinsk 1903–1970 New York)
1960
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