Untitled (still life with mallet, scissors and two gloves)
1938/1939
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
oil on gesso board
Dimensions
overall: 7.5 x 12.6 cm (2 15/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.56.659
Art Historical Context
In the late 1930s, as Mark Rothko honed his craft amid New York's vibrant art scene during the Great Depression he created small-scale still lifes like *Untitled (still life withlet, scissors and two)* (1938/1939). This diminutive oil on gesso board, measuring just 7.5 x 12.6 cm, captures everyday objects—a mallet, scissors, and pair of gloves—arr with quiet precision. Rendered on a primed board for a smooth, luminous surface, it reflects Rothko's early representational phase, influenced by European modernists and American realism, before his iconic shift to abstract color fields. Though Roth...
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...