id: 162166 accession number: 2001.9.4 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2001.9.4 updated: 2023-03-15 15:46:43.864000 Laurels Number Four: March at a Table, 1948. Milton Avery (American, 1885–1965), Laurels Gallery. Drypoint; sheet: 41.8 x 33 cm (16 7/16 x 13 in.); platemark: 22.3 x 15.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2001.9.4 © Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York title: Laurels Number Four: March at a Table title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1948 creation date earliest: 1948 creation date latest: 1948 current location: creditline: Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund copyright: © Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York --- culture: America, 20th century technique: drypoint department: Prints collection: PR - Drypoint type: Portfolio find spot: catalogue raisonne: Lunn 28 --- CREATORS * Milton Avery (American, 1885–1965) - artist * Laurels Gallery - published by --- measurements: Sheet: 41.8 x 33 cm (16 7/16 x 13 in.); Platemark: 22.3 x 15.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: Portfolio No. 89 from an edition of 100 support materials: description: wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed and dated 1948 within plate and in graphite below platemark, lower right: Milton Avery translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Milton Avery was a quiet, humble man whose art reflected his life. Inspired by personal experience and based on direct observation, his relaxed, intimate works depict a serene, ideal world. Landscapes evoke summer trips to the country and seaside; urban scenes depict family and friends. From apparently ordinary subject matter, Avery constructed innovative works in which simplified flat forms build perfectly balanced, satisfying compositions. Between 1947 and 1948, Chris Ritter, director of the Laurel Gallery, New York, published four issues of Laurels, portfolios of prints, literature, and original calligraphy often on paper handmade by Douglass Howell. The museum's collection already includes the first two issues, with prints by Joan Miró, Stanley William Hayter, Reginald Marsh, and others. The five drypoints shown here were made for the fourth Laurels Portfolio. They encompass Avery's favorite motifs: landscape, seascape, and figure, all delineated with amazing economy. For example, the Nude with Long Torso is drawn with two horizontal lines that span the length of the plate. By subtly controlling the thickness of line or placement of a shape, a sense of roundness, weight, and a shallow space are created. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES