Pollock’s sketches from the late 1930s show him exploring the compositions of the old masters, with the aid of photographic reproductions. On this sheet, the artist has copied two ignudi from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes, turning the sheet from a vertical to a horizontal orientation in the process, so that one figure appears to sit on the other’s back. At the time, Pollock was learning the methods of his teacher, Thomas Hart Benton. In a five-article series published in 1926–27, "Mechanics of Form Organization in Painting," Benton analyzed paintings by the Spanish Renaissance master El Greco and others in terms of their "cubic forms." On the other side of this sheet, Pollock re-created a Resurrection scene by El Greco using Benton’s methods.
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Inscription: Inscribed (upper right corner): 5 [from Sketchbook I]
the artist, Springs, N.Y. (until d. 1956; his estate, New York, 1956–62); Lee Krasner Pollock, New York (1962–d. 1984; her estate, New York, 1984–90; sold to MMA)
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Continuity and Change: 45 American Abstract Painters and Sculptors," April 12–May 27, 1962, no. 116 (as “Two Sketch Books,” c. 1931–34, lent by Lee Krasner Pollock).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Jackson Pollock," April 5–June 4, 1967, no. 84 (as "Studies after Michelangelo's 'Jonah' and 'Nude Youth,' from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, lent by the estate of the artist).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Jackson Pollock," April 5–June 4, 1967, no. 84 (dated 1938, lent by the estate of the artist).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Jackson Pollock," July 9–September 3, 1967, no. 84.
Minneapolis. Walker Art Center. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," February 11–March 19, 1968, not in catalogue.
College Park. University of Maryland Art Gallery. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," April 1–22, 1968, not in catalogue.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," May 14–June 16, 1968, not in catalogue.
Seattle Art Museum. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," July 11–August 18, 1968, not in catalogue.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," September 8–October 6, 1968, not in catalogue.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," October 21–November 18, 1968, not in catalogue.
Waltham, Mass. Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. "Jackson Pollock: Works on Paper," January 20–February 16, 1969, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Jackson Pollock: Early Sketchbooks and Drawings," October 21, 1997–February 8, 1998, no catalogue.
Francis Valentine O'Connor and Eugene Victor Thaw, ed. Jackson Pollock: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Drawings, and Other Works. Vol. 3, Drawings, 1930–1956. New Haven, 1978, pp. 19–20, no. 406, ill. (recto and verson), date it ca. 1933–38; identify the motifs on the recto as copied from Michelangelo's "Creation of Woman" panel from the Sistine Chapel and on the verso from El Greco's "Resurrection of Christ with Portrait of Don Diego de Castilla".
Ellen G. Landau. Jackson Pollock. New York, 1989, ill. p. 29 (recto).
Katharine Baetjer. "Pollock Interprets the Old Masters: Sketchbooks I and II." The Jackson Pollock Sketchbooks in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 44–45, 48, 51, 57 n. 12, p. 85, nos. I:5r and I:5v, identifies the recto drawings as two ignudi from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and the verso drawings after El Greco's "Saint Peter Repentant".
Jackson Pollock (American, Cody, Wyoming 1912–1956 East Hampton, New York)
ca. 1938–39
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