William Zorach
Born in Lithuania, William Zorach and his family immigrated to Cleveland in 1891. He left school to work for a commercial lithography firm while studying at the Cleveland School of Art. He moved to New York in 1907, enrolling at the National Academy of Design. He then traveled to Paris, where he met the artist Marguerite Thompson. The couple moved back to New York City together, holding joint exhibitions in their home. By 1922, Zorach abandoned painting to focus on his work as a sculptor.
When you close your eyes, what do you see?
This painting is one of two works on the same panel—the reverse side features a cityscape. The use of both sides of the panel is evidence of Zorach’s poverty and the scarcity of art materials he had access to during this period. Painted on the bottom of an old drawer, this Madonna holds a stylized lily up toward a light, perhaps from the sun or moon. The spire of the church behind her may have been based on Provincetown’s picturesque Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, which was built in 1847.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jason Schoener