Two Women Leaning Back in Sofa, Knitting
1901 to 1925
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
pen and black ink on wove paper
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.56.200
Art Historical Context
In the National Gallery of Art's collection, *Two Women Leaning Back Sofa, Knitting*ca. 1901–1925) offers a rare glimpse into the early figurative phase of Mark Rothko, the artist later celebrated for his monumental abstract color fields. Created with pen and black ink on wove paper, intimate drawing captures two women in a relaxed domestic moment—leaning back on a sofa, absorbed in knitting. The modest medium highlights Rothko's skillful line work, typical of early 20th-century sketches that emphasize everyday life and human form before his shift to abstraction. Rothko, born in 1903 in prese...
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...