Richard Diebenkorn
Woman Seated in a Chair
1962
Scroll
Richard Diebenkorn
Woman Seated in a Chair
1962
Physical Qualities
Pen and black ink, Conté crayon, charcoal, and brush and black wash, Sheet: 432 × 352 mm. (17 × 13 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection
Object Number
1970.21.3
Diebenkorn executed many works—drawings, prints, and paintings—focused on a single female figure, often contrasting flat background elements with a dimensional treatment of the body. Here, however, he reverses strategies, drawing the background elements and chair dimensionally, and flattening the figure’s torso on the page, obscuring its shape beneath the patterned dress. Diebenkorn draws from a perspective slightly above the figure, accentuating her downward gaze and folded arms. Her body extends beyond the borders of the page, emphasizing how she reclines and sinks into the chair.
Publication References
Diebenkorn, Richard. Drawings by Richard Diebenkorn; Stanford, CA : Dept. of Art & Architecture, Stanford University, 1965, p. 14. Intro. by Lorenz Eitner.
"The Thomas Edward Benesch Memorial Collection," The Baltimore Museum of Art Record, Vol. 1 no. 2, 1970, illust.
Clisby, Roger D. 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings from the Baltimore Museum of Art: Catalogue [of an exhibition held at the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, November 3 - December 2, 1973, Honolulu Academy of Arts, January 18 - February 17, 1974, and William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, April 2 - April 21, 1974]. [Sacramento, CA]: E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, 1973, cat. no. 13, unpaged.
Elderfield, John. The Drawings of Richard Diebenkorn; New York: The Museum of
Modern Art and Houston Fine Art Press, 1988, p. 108 (ill.).
BMA Today, Spring 2006, ill. p. 7.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1970; Mr. Edward Benesch, NY
Richard Diebenkorn: paintings and drawings, 1943-1976; Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Gallery, 1976. Exhibition catalog. Essays by Maurice Tuchman, Gerald Nordland, Robert T. Buck Jr., Linda L. Cathcart.
Inscribed: lower center in conte crayon: "RD 63"