At The Theater
Description:
“Three quarter length portrait of a young woman in a black evening gown, seated in a red-upholstered chair in a theater box, one hand and her fan resting on the red-covered railing. She is posed three-quarters toward the left, with her face turned toward the observer, and holds in her hand a lorgnon. Her flesh strongly lighted, she is seen against a background of blackness, a white lace shawl falling over one arm and American Beauty roses at her corsage.
Signed at the centre of bottom, A. MULLER-URY.
Height, 31 inches; width, 20 inches.”
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
Provenance:
Mrs. Emelie de L. Havemeyer (Widow of the late Theodore A. Havemeyer) sale, American Art Galleries, Madison Square South, New York, Wednesday evening, 8p.m., November 18th, 1914, Lot 64. Bought: Mr. J. B. Wilbur of the Gotham Hotel according to American Art News, Vol. XIII, No. 7, November 21, 1914 (probably Dr. James Benjamin Wilbur 1856-1929),$37.50.
Mentioned in an anonymous cutting from 1914 in the artist’s papers – ‘A young woman, in black evening gown, seated in a theatre box, with strongly lighted face,’ which must refer to the Havemeyer sale, where Muller-Ury is referred to as ‘…about the only American painter represented.’
