Summer Night

Artist Will Barnet (1911 - 2012)

Date1974-1976

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions37 3/4 x 36 3/4 in. (95.9 x 93.3 cm)
Framed: 39 in. × 38 in. × 1 7/8 in.

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2006.22

Signedl.c., in black paint: Will Barnet verso, on canvas, in black paint: © Will Barnett 1976

Accession number 2006.22

On View

Not on view

Provenanceto Elena Barnet (Artist's wife), 1976; (Babcock Galleries, New York, NY), 2006; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2006
Label TextLargely stripped of their features, both the women and the nondescript clapboard house they occupy, are archetypes, according to Barnet—symbols of fabled New England steadfastness. In the background, the shoreline, sea, and sky are simply rendered with flat swaths of paint.

Inspired by his familial ties to Maine, Barnet’s series of women along the shore represents his return to figurative painting but continues his exploration of creating illusions of space, an interest he developed when painting abstractly.
Inscribedverso, on tacking edge folded over the top, in black: Begun 1974 completed 1976 / The xxx [something effaced] Summer Night / Will Barnet
verso, on top stretcher member: This painting is a gift to my wife Elena Barnet 1976

Markingsverso, on canvas: REDON / AJNAC Preprimed [stencil]