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PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF JMG
Lot 3A
GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE(1909-1977)Blue Shell
14 May 2025, 17:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$191,000 inc. premium
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GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE (1909-1977)
Blue Shell
signed and dated 'Abercrombie 56' (lower left)
oil on board
4 1/4 x 5 3/8 in (10.8 x 13.7 cm)
Painted in 1956
signed and dated 'Abercrombie 56' (lower left)
oil on board
4 1/4 x 5 3/8 in (10.8 x 13.7 cm)
Painted in 1956
Footnotes
We are grateful to Dr. Susan Weininger, Professor Emerita, Roosevelt University, for her assistance in cataloguing this work.
Provenance
Adelaide Frances Gerstley Collection, Chicago (acquired directly from the artist in 1956 at the North Side Art Fair, Chicago).
Paul Jesse Gerstley Collection, Santa Monica, California (by descent from the above in 1978).
Thence by descent to the late owner in 2004.
Blue Shell, painted by Gertrude Abercrombie in 1956, epitomizes the highly symbolic, contemplative nature of her work that the Illinois native is celebrated for. The shell, like so many of the motifs prevalent in the artist's work, was steeped in personal significance. Gertrude Abercrombie was plagued with feelings of isolation, insecurity, and confinement throughout her adult life. She frequently painted interior scenes, likening her own occupied space to that of a prison. In that sense, the shell can be considered as a room in its own right: a simple space from which there is no escape, echoing the constructed spaces she so often represented.
Abercrombie likely drew inspiration for the present work from her personal collection of shells, which frequently served as models for her paintings. The artist's preoccupation with still life painting anchored in firsthand observation began in the early 1950s after her friend, the artist John Wilde, told her she should paint with more attention to careful detail. It is not surprising, therefore, that the artist produced numerous painted studies of shells throughout that decade. Many of Abercrombie's shells, depicted both alone and as components of more complex still life paintings, feature the curved snail shell with its spiraling form as seen in Blue Shell.
While iconographic similarities can be drawn between the present work and other paintings by the artist with shells, Abercrombie rarely repeated a composition. Even in works as simple as the shell paintings, she varied the backgrounds, colors, and proportions, always lending consideration to the balance and order of the composition. The beautifully rendered image in Blue Shell, a deceptively simple composition, is carefully balanced. The large spiral shell, placed in the midground and slightly to the left of center, is offset by the miniscule Tower Snail shell at center-right and closer to the picture plane. The tiny white shell is echoed by the wispy white cloud in the distant horizon, creating a delicate equilibrium of surface and space. The blue of the large shell with its whitish highlights resonates with the tiny shell and cloud, while Abercrombie's signature turquoise blue background unifies the work.
The personal, enigmatic subject and precise craftsmanship of Blue Shell exudes a sense of dream-like enchantment. Abercrombie's devoted attention to capturing even the simplest of objects, as exemplified in the present work, lends to the fantastical, mysterious, and introspective quality of her oeuvre that seems to transcend everyday reality.