Beach Scenes
c. 1943
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 25.8 x 19.8 cm (10 3/16 x 7 13/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Sally Michel Avery
Accession Number
2002.104.1.54
Art Historical Context
Milton Avery's *Beach Scenes* (c. 1943) invites visitors into a serene, sun-drenched world captured in a modest graphite drawing on wove paper. Measuring just 25.8 x 19.8 cm, this intimate work from the National Gallery of Art's collection—generously gifted by Avery's wife, artist Sally Michel Avery—likely served as a preparatory sketch, its compact scale evoking the portability of an artist's notebook during leisurely outings. Created amid World War II, the piece reflects Avery's signature modernist style, blending simplified forms and subtle tonal variations to evoke the rhythms of everyday...
About the Artist
Milton Avery
Milton Avery, born on March 7, 1885, in Altmar, New York, to a working-class family—his father a tanner—grew up in modest circumstances. After his family's move to the Hartford area of Connecticut in 1898, he took on various manual jobs, including as a mechanic, clerk, and construction worker, to support himself and relatives following family tragedies. His artistic path began around 1905 at the C...