1988.449: Sketchbook

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1988.449

People

Raphael Soyer, American (Borisoglebsk, Russia 1899 - 1987 New York, NY)

Title

Sketchbook

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

sketchbook

Date

c. 1972

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/309784

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Sketchbook with blue and white marbled cardboard covers

Dimensions

actual: 36.7 x 24.5 cm (14 7/16 x 9 5/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• stamp: front pastedown, blue ink, stamped: [dealer]: K P / LUCIEN LEFEBVRE - FOINET / 2, Rue Bréa, 2 / PARIS
• inscription: front pastedown, graphite: Cohn 799 6675

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Raphael Soyer, bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1988.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Raphael Soyer

Accession Year

1988

Object Number

1988.449

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

Sketchbook with blue-and-white marbled cardboard covers. Black fabric tape at spine. Sewn page block; sheets perforated for removal. Pages of off-white wove paper, each 36.7 x 24.5 cm. Pages are numbered in graphite at l.l. of versos. Each page watermarked: J.-- ANNONAY. Drawings mostly in graphite and vertically oriented unless otherwise described.

p. 1 Three Portrait Heads. Vertical.
graphite, u.l. [crossed off: 663] / 662 2569
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 2 Reclining Nude with Pink Stockings. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 3 Rebecca Soyer Recovering from Illness. Vertical. Graphite and gray wash.
center right: Rebecca / Recovering / from / Illness.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 4 Rebecca Soyer Recovering from Illness. Vertical. Graphite and gray wash.
center right: Rebecca / Recovering
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 5 Seated Female Nude. Vertical. Graphite and gray wash.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 6 Seated Female Nude. Vertical. Graphite and gray wash.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 7 Reclining Female Nude. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
erasure crumbs on page.

p. 8 Reclining Female Nude from Behind. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 9 Reclining Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
brown stain on verso—wash?

p. 10 Female Nude Lying Prone. Horizontal. Graphite and white chalk.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 11 Reclining Female Nude. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 13 Female Nude on her Side. Horizontal.
center left: Cyndie / -24133
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 14 Self-Portrait.
center right: Self / Portrait
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 15 Woman with a Cigarette (Joyce Freiman)
lower edge: Joyce Freiman
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 16 Seated Man in Flowered Shirt (Art Harris)
l.l.: STUDY FOR PAINTING / OF ART HARRIS
l.r.: [erased: RAPHAE / L] RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 17 Portrait of a Man (Gideon Letz)
l.r.: of / Gideon Letz / RAPHAEL / SOYER
brown (chalk?) smudge at u.r.

p. 18 Amorous Couple, after Indian painting?
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
[4/02: Mary McWilliams and Kim Masteller of Islamic and Later Indian Art thought that this was probably a copy after something mass-produced, possibly for the tourist market—maybe a Kama Sutra illustration? Such a thing would have been commonly available by this time. They note that the man’s face is atypical; in the original it would probably have been more "stoic." This change may be due to the translation to the Western idiom.]

p. 19 Portrait of a Woman (Joyce Freiman)
lower center: Joyce Freiman / Los Angeles
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 20 Portrait of a Woman (Marion Letz)
center left: of / Marion / Letz / Anna / Greenlief
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 21 Portrait of a Woman (Marion Letz)
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER / Marion

p. 22 Two Musicians, after Degas?
l.r.: from / Degas
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
related to portrait of Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas at the Musée d’Orsay but not copied directly—poses are different. Copied from a preparatory work, or altered by Soyer?

p. 23 Reclining Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 24 Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 25 Reclining Female Nude. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL SOYER

p. 26 Reclining Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
erasure crumbs in pages.

p. 27 Reclining Female Nude. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL SOYER

p. 28 Female Nude. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 29 Female Portrait Study.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 30. Female Portrait Study (same woman as p. 29). Graphite and charcoal
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 31 Reclining Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p.32 Joseph E. Foster and Reclining Nude.
l.r.: of Joseph E. / Foster / of / Foster / author of / Drawings by Raphael / Soyer / RAPHAEL / SOYER
[The author of the book on Soyer drawings was actually Joseph K. Foster]

p. 33 Standing Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 34: Reclining Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 35 Female Nude from Behind.
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 36 Reclining Female Nude.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 37: Isaac Soyer. Horizontal.
l.r.; Isaac Soyer
PAGE TORN IN HALF—upper half removed.

p. 38: Two Portrait Heads of Nat Messik Horizontal.
u.r., erased: Grahams / 941 Boulevard / East / Weehoken [sic] N.J.
center right: Nat Messik
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
l.l., erased: Grahams
Page is loose from binding—not at perforation, but at binding

p. 39: Reclining Female. Horizontal.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 40 Male Portrait Study.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
Drawn over another portrait, erased
Smudge of blue gouache on verso

p. 41: Standing Female Nude (Diane Di Prima).
l.l.: Diane Di Prima
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p,. 42 Reclining Female. Horizontal.
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
smudge of blue gouache at l.r.

p. 43: Three Studies of Females
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
Two of the women (same figure twice) copied from another work?

p. 44: Alex Dobkin.
upper edge: Telephone 663 3436
u.r.: Alex / Dobkin
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 45: Isaac Soyer.
l.r.: of / Isaac Soyer / RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 46: Reclining Female Nude. Horizontal.
l.l.: RAPHAEL / SOYER

p. 47: Seated Nude Female.
l.r.: RAPHAEL / SOYER
upper edge: After all the [inserted with caret: psychological shock &] turmoil she describes, and the / political upheaval, & the [ ] that "poisoned our ethical & moral [ ] reaction & counter-reactions [head of female is drawn over last line of inscription]

VERSO: Dear Nathan Schwerner / I have read carefully the Credo of Lee Mack / and studied the reproductions of her work. [inserted with caret: By the way] I would like / to know whether Lee Mack knows that you asked me for / my opinion? [crossed off: I have to be It’s a very personal credo] // Since the topic [ ] Art & art to Lee Mack & to / me is the all consuming interest in our lives, what I / will say, [crossed off: will] may be my "Credo." // [crossed off: Now,] I am 73 years old. I have painted & drawn / since pre-World-War I, [crossed off: post World War I, pre W] between / the two World Wars, and since. I have always been a representationalist & a realist. To me, realism, [crossed off: is the / apogee in art] ever-renewable realism, like [crossed off: nature] / life, like nature, is the driving force in art. Altho’ the / abstract expressionists who had so much influenced the / art in Europe & America, for whatever reasons that may be / were my contemporaries, I refused to be moved by them. / And this goes for all the other [inserted with caret: ephemeral] isms [crossed off: whether caused by / disillusionment or [inserted with caret: by] various other reasons brought / about by] no matter by what they were caused (post-war / disillusionment, despair, new post-war imperialism, etc.) // [crossed off: It amazes me to know that Lee Mack delved] // I question [crossed off: the] how deeply one can, in only one life- / time, absorb the many art cultures that Lee Mack mentions. / I [inserted with caret: vaguely] know these cultures—[crossed off: I’ve looke] certainly I have looked with / great interest at [crossed off: the] Hindu, Egyptian,, Assyrian & African art, but did / not have enough time to study them in depth. I am a product of Western / [crossed off: civilization] art, [crossed off: I love it.] To me a work by Van Eyck, Vermeer Wander / Weyden, Massacio [sic], Rembrandt, Degas, Courbet, Cezanne [inserted with caret: Rodin] mean / more than black African scupture, primitive American Indian art, Azetc, Toltec & Maya. // ? [I don’t want to go into the political & socio-economic / aspect of her Credo. In general I agree with it]

Verification Level