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Collection

Exhibitions: 4 x 4

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Artist(s): Raphael Soyer (Borisoglebsk, Russia, Dec 25, 1899 - Nov 4, 1987, New York, NY)
Title: Mina
Date: 1932
Dimensions: 36 1/4 in. x 27 1/4 in. (92.08 cm x 69.22 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Credit Line: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, museum purchase, 1934.4

This object is a member of the following groups (click any group name to view all objects in that group):

Exhibitions: 4 x 4
Themes: MLC Portfolio: American Identity

Object Information

Russian-born Raphael Soyer (1899–1987) emigrated to the United States in 1912 at the age of thirteen. One of three sons encouraged to sketch and paint by his father, Soyer began formal art training as a teenager at New York's Cooper Union, later studying at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. After completing his academic endeavors, Soyer initially painted ordinary scenes from his life in a colorful, flat, naive style. Inthe thirties, he became a strong advocate of realism, stating, "the content of my art is people  . . . I choose to be a realist and a humanist in art." Throughout his life he continued to work in a naturalistic, representational mode.

One of Soyer's primary concerns was expressed in his paintings of women in which he demonstrated sensitivity to his female subjects and an interest in their physical environments. Of these works, Soyer scholar Lloyd Goodrich wrote, "his women are seen with warmth and intimacy, and a note of sentiment. There is nothing of the voyeur in him. One feels that these women must somehow be close to him, not the usual professional models but friends, women he knew well." Subdued in color and tone, the mood of images such as Mina is quiet and introspective. Soyer captured th character of his sitter, a young immigrant from Galacia, Poland, through careful observation of her individual body shape. The painting evokes a sense of profound sympathy between the artist and his model. Inthis complex composition, Soyer has focused on the interrelationship of the figure with the surrounding objects, space, and light. Two other versions of this painting were completed, one is in a private collection and the second, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, portrays its subject in a state of dark, psychological tension. Currently, Mina is ninety years old and lives in New York City with her daughter.
Sarah Vure

Exhibition History

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Terms of Criticism, Addison Gallery of American Art, 00/00/00 - 5/10/1965
Museum's Choice, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 2/2/1945 - 2/25/1945
Loan to Stevens Memorial Library, Stevens Memorial Library, 3/3/1953 - 6/30/1953
Scope in Collecting [25th Anniversary Exhibition], Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/19/1956 - 12/24/1956
Loan to Bradford Junior College, Bradford Junior College, 3/14/1960 - 4/11/1960
Terms of Criticism, Addison Gallery of American Art, 7/26/1963 - 12/23/1963
1965 New York State Exposition Art Exhibition, New York State Exposition, 8/31/1965 - 9/6/1965
Terms of Criticism, Addison Gallery of American Art, 7/15/1966 - 10/3/1966
American Painting of the Depression Era, Mead Art Museum, 2/15/1969 - 3/19/1969
Terms of Criticism, Addison Gallery of American Art, 7/18/1969 - 10/19/1969
The Works, Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/7/1969 - 2/22/1970
Between the Wars, Currier Museum of Art, 5/12/1971 - 6/9/1971
Figures and Landscapes in American Painting. . ., University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, 1/22/1975 - 3/21/1975
The Split-Up: The Beginning of a New Art in America, Addison Gallery of American Art, 3/13/1981 - 4/12/1981
Art II Exhibition, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/14/1983 - 2/14/1983
Faculty Choice Show: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Photographs and Sculpture from, Addison Gallery of American Art, 7/5/1988 - 7/31/1988
Boys and Girls, Men and Women, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/12/1990 - 6/10/1990
American Masterworks, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/5/1990 - 12/16/1990
American Portraits: Colonial to Contemporary, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/21/1992 - 5/10/1992
Faces of the Addison: Portraits from the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/23/1994 - 7/31/1994
Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/13/1996 - 7/31/1996
Thinking Through Art, Middlebury College Museum of Art, 12/1/2007 - 5/15/2008
80 @ 80 , Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/15/2011 - 12/31/2011
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/19/2013 - 3/10/2013
Eye on the Collection: Artful Poses, Addison Gallery of American Art, 2/1/2014 - 3/30/2014
4 x 4, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/1/2018 - 7/31/2019

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