The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 6, 2023

The Family (In Memory of a Summer in the White Mountains)

1917

Marguerite Zorach

(American, 1887–1968)

America

Plain weave silk; wool embroidery

Object: 86.4 x 72.4 cm (34 x 28 1/2 in.); Framed: 90.2 x 77.5 cm (35 1/2 x 30 1/2 in.)

Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund 2020.261

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Painstaking and time-consuming to make, Zorach’s embroideries are extremely rare, numbering fewer than 20 examples.

Description

Marguerite Zorach conceived and executed her embroideries as major aesthetic statements at a time when the medium was routinely considered “craft,” as opposed to “fine art,” thereby erasing such distinctions. One of her most acclaimed works, The Family is a celebration of domesticity in harmony with nature, presenting the artist, her husband, and their son with an evergreen tree and four pairs of animals.

Inscriptions

Inscription

THE FAMILY / DONE BY MARGUERITE ZORACH IN THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN IN MEMORY OF A SUMMER IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

Inscription Remark

The embroidered inscription is located on the outside border of the large centrally placed roundel on the front of the textile. It is an elaborate inscription recounting details of the embroidery’s inspiration and creation along with the artist's name and the date it was made.

Provenance
1917?
Collection of the artist, gifted to Nathan and Eda Krass, New York, NY
Nathan and Eda Krass, New York, NY, gifted to their daughter, Alice Krass Loewenheim and Arnold J. Loewenheim, New York, NY
Alice Krass Loewenheim and Arnold J. Loewenheim, New York, by descent to their daughter Lucy Loewenheim Cohen, Rockville, MD
2020
(James Reinish and Associates, and Kraushaar Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2020-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Year Book of the Architectural League of New York, and Catalogue of the Thirty-ninth Annual Exhibition. 1924. Reproduced: p.80
Lippman, Herbert. "The Architectural League Inhibition." The Arts 5, No.3 (March 1924). Mentioned: p.134; Reproduced: p.137
Friedman Hoffman, Marilyn. Marguerite and William Zorach: The Cubist Years, 1915-1918. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987. Reproduced: Frontispiece
Shilliam, Nicola J. "Emerging Identity: American Textile Artists in the Early Twentieth Century." In Carlano, Annie, and Nicola J. Shilliam. Early Modern Textiles: From Arts and Crafts to Art Deco. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1993. p. 28-44
Burk, Efram L. "Testament to American Modernism: The Prints of William and Marguerite Zorach." Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1998. Mentioned: pp.163, 211
Fowler, Cynthia. "Early American Modernism and Craft Production: The Embroideries of Marguerite Zorach." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, 2002. Mentioned: pp.112, 142; Reproduced: p.237
Cheney, Liana. Essays on Women Artists: "The Most Excellent." Vol.2. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. Mentioned: p.78
Fowler, Cynthia. The Modern Embroidery Movement. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018. Mentioned: p.214; Reproduced: p.215, n.15
Shaykin, Rebecca, and Claudia Gould. Edith Halpert: The Downtown Gallery and the Rise of American Art. Jewish Museum, New York; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. Mentioned and reproduced: p.31
Butler, Eliza. "Review: Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art." Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 6, no.1 (Spring 2020). Mentioned (unpaginated) editions.lib.umn.edu
Litt, Steven. "Piece from Rose Iron Works highlights latest acquisitions." The Plain Dealer. December 20, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: p.D3
Kenny, Nancy, "Acquisitions," Art Newspaper, 331 (February 2021).
 Mentioned and reproduced, p. 23.
Exhibition history

Exhibition of Embroidered Tapestries by Marguerite Zorach. Montross Gallery, New York, NY (5-17 February, 1923); traveled to Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, MI (1924).

Thirty-ninth Annual Exhibition. Architectural League of New York, NY. (3 February - 2 March, 1924).

Opening Exhibition: Small Paintings by Leading Contemporary Artists. Our Gallery, New York, NY (6 November - ?, 1926).

Marguerite and William Zorach: The Cubist Years, 1915-1918. Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH (11 January - 15 February, 1987); traveled to The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA (7 March - 19 April, 1987); to Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME (26 April - 31 May, 1987); to Robert Hull Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, VT (12 June - 16 August, 1987).

Edith Halpert: The Downtown Gallery and the Rise of American Art. Jewish Museum, New York, NY (18 October, 2019 - 9 February, 2020).

Omaha Society of Fine Arts, Omaha, NE (unknown date).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.261