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Artwork Details
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Title:Self-Portrait at the Age of Nine
Artist:Arshile Gorky (American (born Armenia), Khorkom 1904–1948 Sherman, Connecticut)
Date:1928
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:12 1/4 × 10 1/8 in. (31.1 × 25.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Leon Constantiner, 2002
Object Number:2002.145
Inscription: Inscribed and dated (verso): Self Portrait / at the age of / 9. 1913
Helen Austin, New York (from ca. 1928; acquired from the artist; after 1965 to Wilder); Nicholas Wilder, Los Angeles and New York (by 1981–d. 1989; his estate, from 1989); Leon Constantiner, New York (probably by 1993–2002; on consignment to Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe and New York, in 2001; his gift to MMA)
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948: A Retrospective," April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 8 (lent by Nicholas Wilder, Los Angeles).
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948: A Retrospective," September 12–November 6, 1981, no. 8.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948: A Retrospective," December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982, no. 8.
Madrid. Sala de Exposiciones de la Caja de Pensiones. "Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948," October 17–December 23, 1989, no. 2 (as "Self Portrait at the Age of Nine, 1913," lent by the Estate of Nicholas Wilder, courtesy David McKee Gallery, New York).
London. Whitechapel Art Gallery. "Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948," January 19–March 25, 1990, no. 2.
New York. Jason McCoy Inc. "Expressive Heads: Including Works by Bacon, Baziotes, Dubuffet, Gorky, Matisse, Moore, Picasso, and Pollock," May 6–June 12, 1993, no. 4.
New York. Gagosian Gallery. "Arshile Gorky: Portraits," March 20–April 27, 2002, unnumbered cat. (p. 8).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective," October 21, 2009–January 10, 2010, unnumbered cat. (pl. 5).
London. Tate Modern. "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective," February 10–May 3, 2010, unnumbered cat. (pl. 5).
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective," June 6–September 20, 2010, unnumbered cat. (pl. 5).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "XS," December 6, 2011–April 15, 2012, no catalogue.
Hayden Herrera inArshile Gorky: Drawings to Paintings. Exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin. Austin, 1975, pp. 43, 45, fig. 2.
Hayden Herrera. "Gorky's Self-Portraits: The Artist by Himself." Art in America 64 (March–April 1976), pp. 58–59, fig. 3.
Diane Waldman. Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1981, p. 20, no. 8, ill.
Jim M. Jordan in Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater. The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue. New York, 1982, pp. 21–22, 56, 149, no. 23, ill., calls it "Self Portrait at the Age of Nine, 1913" and dates it 1927.
Melvin P. Lader. Arshile Gorky. New York, 1985, p. 29, fig. 3 (color), dates it about 1927.
David Anfam. Abstract Expressionism. New York, 1990, pp. 20, 209, fig. 9.
Lisa Corrin inArshile Gorky, 1904–1948. Exh. cat., Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid. London, 1990, pp. 165, 167, 190, no. 2, ill. p. 58 (color), dates it 1927.
Robert Natkin. "Exhibition Reviews: Arshile Gorky." Modern Painters 3 (Spring 1990), ill. p. 83, calls it "Self Portrait at the Age of Nine, 1913," and dates it 1927.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 2001–2002." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 60 (Fall 2002), p. 41, ill. (color).
David Anfam. Arshile Gorky: Portraits. Exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery. New York, 2002, p. 11, ill. p. 8 (color), dates it about 1925–26.
Hayden Herrera. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York, 2003, pp. 140–41, 145, fig. 69, dates it around 1927.
Michael R. Taylor inCézanne and Beyond. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, pp. 419–22, 559 n. 44, fig. 15.10 (color).
Robert S. Mattison. Arshile Gorky: Works and Writings. Barcelona, 2009, ill. p. 17 (color).
Kim S. Theriault. Rethinking Arshile Gorky. University Park, Penn., 2009, p. 42, fig. 9, calls it "Self-Portrait at the Age of Nine, 1913," in caption.
Catherine Craft. An Audience of Artists: Dada, Neo-Dada, and the Emergence of Abstract Expressionism. Chicago, 2012, p. 94, fig. 16.
Mary Morton in John Elderfield Mary Morton and Xavier Rey. Cézanne Portraits. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Princeton, 2017, pp. 105, 106 n. 4.
Arshile Gorky Foundation. Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Eileen Costello. Online resource [gorkycatalogue.org], 2025 (accessed), no. P023, ill. (color), calls it "Self-Portrait at the Age of 9, 1913".
Arshile Gorky (American (born Armenia), Khorkom 1904–1948 Sherman, Connecticut)
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