Profile of a Woman Facing Right, Left Arm Extended
1901 to 1925
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
(drawing)
Dimensions
overall (approximate): 21.6 x 28.1 cm (8 1/2 x 11 1/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.56.407
Art Historical Context
**Profile of a Woman Facing Right, Left Arm Extended** is a rare early drawing by Mark Roth, created sometime between 1901 and1925. Born in 1903 in what is now Latvia, Rothko immigrated to the United States a child and began exploring art in his youth. This intimate sheet, measuring about 8½ x 11 inches, captures a simple yet evocative profile of a woman turning right with her left arm outstretched—a figurative study that hints at the artist's budding observational skills before his fame as a pioneer of abstract expressionism. Unlike Rothko's later monumental color-field paintings, which imme...
About the Artist
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko (born Marcus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) stands as one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American art and a central pioneer of Abstract Expressionism. Born into a Jewish family in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), then part of the Russian Empire, Rothko's early life was marked by the fear and persecution faced by Jews in Tsarist Rus...