Trees by the Sea
1953
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
woodcut in black on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 24.6 x 35.2 cm (9 11/16 x 13 7/8 in.) sheet: 30.7 x 46 cm (12 1/16 x 18 1/8 in.)
Classification
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
1991.233.67
Art Historical Context
**Trees by the Sea** a striking 1953 woodcut by Milton Avery, the American modernist painter celebrated for his poetic simplifications of nature. Created in black ink on wove paper, this print measures 24.6 x 35.2 cm for the image and 307 x 46 cm for full sheet. Avery, who bridged representational art and abstraction, distills the serene interplay of trees against a vast sea into bold, flattened forms—hallmarks of his style that influenced Abstract Expressionists like Mark Rothko. Woodcuts, a relief printing technique where the artist carves away negative space from a wood block to leave rais...
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...