Woman Reclining on Sofa
1901 to 1925
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 21.5 x 27.7 cm (8 7/16 x 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.56.180
Art Historical Context
**Woman Reclining on**, a delicate graphite drawing on wove paper by Markko (1903–1970), captures a serene female figure lounging gracefully on a sofa. Created sometime between 1901 and1925—likely during Rothko's formative years as a young immigrant artist in the United States—this intimate 21.5 x 27.7 cm sketch (8 7/16 x 10 7/8 in.) offers a rare glimpse into the artist's early figurative style, long before his iconic abstract color fields. Rothko, born Marcus Rothkovich in present-day Latvia, arrived in Portland, Oregon, in 1913 and later pursued art in New York. This drawing reflects his i...
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...