Rosalie
1939
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
drypointed copper plate
Dimensions
plate: 16.6 x 11.5 cm (6 9/16 x 4 1/2 in.)
Classification
Technical Material
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Avery Family, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
1991.233.98
Art Historical Context
In the intimate world of Milton Avery's oeuvre, *Rosalie* (1939) stands a rare technical treasure: a drypointed copper measuring just 16.6 x 11.5 cm. Avery, a pivotal American modernist painter (1885–1965), is celebrated for his luminous color harmonies and flattened forms that bridged Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism. Though best known for vibrant oils, he ventured into printmaking, and this plate—likely etched for a portrait—reveals his mastery of line in a more intimate scale. Drypoint, an intaglio technique, involves scratching directly into the copper surface with a sharp tool, r...
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...